irtftflhittfuimn 



III IllllllllllUj' 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LECTUEES 



ON 



CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 



BY 



ANDREW P. PEABODY, 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH CHURCH, PORTSMOUTH, N. H. 



SECOND EDITION, 

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON THE SCRIPTURES. 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. 
1844. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by 
ANDREW P. PEABODY, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts., 





BOSTON; 
PRINTED BY THURSTON, TORRY AND CO, 

31 Devonshire Street. 



PREFACE. 



These Lectures were prepared for the pulpit, without 
the slightest reference to their publication. They have 
been sent to the press as first written, at the urgent solici- 
tation of many of the author's parishioners. They are 
not offered to the public, as a full compend of Chris- 
tian doctrine, or as a fair exhibition of the "positive side 
of the author's own faith; but simply as a discussion of 
the prominent points at issue between the Unitarian and 
the Calvinistic portion of the Christian Church. As such, 
they were deemed valuable and satisfactory by those who 
heard them ; and it is hoped that they will prove so to those 
who may read them. To the Parish, whose uniformly 
kind and indulgent appreciation of his services and labors 
he is happy thus to acknowledge, they are respectfully 
and affectionately inscribed by 

THE AUTHOR. 

Portsmouth, N. H., Jan. 8, 1844. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 

THE SCRIPTURES, 

LECTURE L 

THE DIVINE NATURE, . 

LECTURE n. 

JESUS CHRIST, . . . , 

LECTURE in. 

JESUS CHRIST, . . * . 

LECTURE IV. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT, . . 

LECTURE V. 

HUMAN NATURE, .... 

LECTURE VI. 

REGENERATION, . . . , 

LECTURE VIL 

THE ATONEMENT, . . 

LECTURE VIII. 

THE ATONEMENT, .... 



INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 



THE SCRIPTURES.* 

2 TIMOTHY III. 16. 

ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR 
DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

In the present Lecture, designed to be preliminary to 
a series of discourses on Christian doctrine, I shall 
present and defend my view of the authority of the 
Sacred Scriptures, and especially of the New Testa- 
ment. 

The Old Testament consists of thirty-nine separate 
books, all of them originally written in Hebrew, by 
nearly as many different authors, and at intervals 
during a period, as is commonly supposed, of more 
than a thousand years. The New Testament consists 
of twenty-seven books, written originally in Greek, by 
ten different authors, in the interval between the reputed 
date of our Saviour's ascension, and the close of the 
first century. These last books I shall quote in the 
following Lectures as of plenary authority on all mat- 

* The substance of this Lecture, originally delivered from the pulpit, 
was published in the Christian Examiner for May, 1842. 
1 



2 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



ters of Christian doctrine, while I shall also make 
occasional reference to the Old Testament, as indicating 
the divine mind with reference to the fundamental 
principles of religion. 

We have a superabundant weight of external and 
internal evidence to convince us, that the books of the 
Old and New Testament, (with unimportant exceptions,) 
were written by the men whose names they bear, or at 
the times when, and the places where they purport to 
have been written ; that they were written honestly and 
in good faith; that they have in all times been regarded 
with reverence and confidence by those, who have 
enjoyed the best means of knowing their true character; 
and that the books of the New Testament were, most 
or all of them, written by the personal companions and 
followers of Jesus of Nazareth, or by their immediate 
disciples and friends. Now, were the Bible merely a 
series of historical works, or did it relate to matters of 
secondary interest and moment, we should be fully 
satisfied with this ample proof of the genuineness and 
authenticity of the several books which it contains. 
But the most honest men are liable to error, especially 
in quoting the sayings of others on abstract and spiritual 
subjects; and on subjects of this kind a very slight 
misrecollection might materially pervert the sense of 
what was uttered. How know we, then, but that the 
evangelists, though honest men, may, by the frailty of 
their own understandings and memories, have grossly 
misrepresented the language and spirit of Jesus? Some 
of these books, too, are not in a narrative form, but 
didactic and doctrinal ; and, if they were written by 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



3 



fallible, yet honest men, without any peculiar illumina- 
tion from heaven, how know we, that they are always 
sound in their counsels and right in their judgments? 
How can we assure ourselves, that they have not erred 
widely on matters both of doctrine and duty, as have 
many w^ise and honest men before and since? 

These questions throw open the whole subject of 
inspiration; and it may be well for us to enter upon our 
inquiry with just notions of its magnitude. How much 
then does it involve? Does it cover the whole ground 
between Christian faith and infidelity? By no means. 
Whoever receives the history of Jesus as authentic, 
has within his reach enough of unquestionable truth to 
serve as the basis of Christian character. No one can 
believe the evangelists to have been honest men, without 
believing the principal facts in the life of Jesus and the 
essential doctrines of his rehgion. But the difference 
lies here. He, who regards the sacred WTiters as 
divinely inspired, deems himself possessed of an unerring 
guide as to all the minutiae of doctrine, of an infallible 
compass for his whole path in life. His only question 
is, 'What say the law and the testimony?' That 
settled, he need seek no farther. He, on the other 
hand, who denies inspiration, while he would feel satis- 
fied with regard to great truths, might be uncertain as 
to many lesser, yet important points; might often doubt 
whether the apostles spoke after the mind of Christ, or 
uttered their own faUible judgments; and thus, where 
the voice of Scripture was entirely clear, might be 
painfully perplexed as to the way of truth and duty. 

But what is inspiration^ We mean by this word, 



4 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



in its application to the Scriptures, a divine influence 
exerted upon the minds of the sacred ivriters^ to aid them 
in the exhibition of truths and to save them from hurtful 
error. No one, we presume, at the present day, would 
maintain that the very words of Scripture were dictated 
by the divine spirit ; that the genealogies in the first 
book of Chronicles were breathed from heaven into 
the author's mind; or that there was anything super- 
natural in Paul's sending for his cloak and parchment. 
We observe in each of the sacred writers peculiarities, 
and sometimes imperfections of style, such as would 
naturally grow out of his education, mode of life, and 
temperament. Amos, the herdsman of Tekoah, writes 
in a much simpler style, and with a much greater afflu- 
ence of rural imagery, than Isaiah and Ezekiel, whose 
condition in life seems to have differed widely from his. 
How easy is it to trace the impetuous Peter, the 
modest and affectionate John, the glowing and devoted 
Paul, in their respective writings! But, if the words 
of the Bible were dictated by God, instead of this great 
diversity of style, we should expect to see the whole 
Bible written in one unvarying style of unique grandeur. 
This strict verbal inspiration would detract greatly 
from the value of some portions of Scripture, particu- 
larly of the devotional parts; for their worth consists 
in their being expressions of devout feeling on the 
part of their authors,— upbreathings of hearts touched 
with a living coal from God's altar, and enabled to light 
a kindred flame in other souls, and thus to furnish 
examples and forms for the devotion of all coming 
times. We doubt not that the Jewish minstrels drank 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



5 



deeply from the same fountain of inspiration, from which 
the prophets drew their marvellous foreknow^ledge; but, 
if God dictated the very words of the Psalms, they 
cease to be specimens of human devotion, and appro- 
priate models for man, and present to us the solecism 
of the Almighty praying to himself, and chanting his 
own praises. As to the merely historical parts of the 
Bible, if the authors knevi^, either by revelation, by 
their own observation and experience, or by means of 
authentic documents already extant, the facts which 
they related, they had no need of verbal inspiration to 
enable them to tell their stories faithfully. Moreover, 
on him, who should maintain the necessity of verbal 
inspiration for the original writers of the Old and New 
Testament, w^ould rest the burden of shovring, why- 
like inspiration is not equally necessary for all translators 
of the Bible. In fact, the question of verbal inspiration, 
did it admit of being agitated, would be barely one of 
vain curiosity. It has ceased to be of any practical 
moment, since the Hebrew and the Greek became 
dead languages. 

But w^hile we beheve that the sacred writers wrote 
each in his ow^n style, and with a large degree of free- 
dom, we maintain, that they were inspired, that their 
minds were preternaturally enliglitened and guided, 
that holy men wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Spirit. For, in the first place, the idea of inspiration 
is in strict accordance with reason and intrinsic proba- 
bility. We cannot deny to the Father of man's spirit 
that power of direct and recognised communication 
with it, which he has granted to fellow men. We 



6 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



cannot suppose that God has opened the soul to the 
inbreathings of other souls, and left no avenue for the 
entrance of his own voice. No. If man has a soul, 
God must have the key to its every apartment, and 
must needs have at his command even those modes of 
access and forms of speech, which, for good reasons, 
he rarely sees fit to use. 

Again we believe that miracles were wrought for the 
establishment both of Judaism and Christianity. Why 
is it less probable, that miracles should have been 
wrought for the faithful transmission of their records? 
If to plant the reign of truth and righteousness upon 
the earth was an object of sufficient moment to disturb 
the laws, which nature had for ages kept, surely to 
perpetuate that same reign on the solid basis of infallible 
testimony, was an object amply worthy of the equally 
magnificent, though less conspicuous miracle of inspi- 
ration. 

We are also predisposed to beheve in the inspiration 
of the sacred writers by the conscious wants of our 
own natures. We feel the need, not only of a generally 
faithful guide, but of one, that we can trust as to all the 
details of truth and duty,^ — of records, which shall be 
to us, in things pertaining to godliness and a life to 
come, what a parent's words are to the conBding ear of 
infancy. We cannot bear to be left in doubt on sub- 
jects, so momentous even in their least imposing aspects. 
The infallibility of Jesus himself affords no sufficient 
basis for implicit, childlike faith, if those, who recorded 
his sayings and pencilled the first developments of his 
truth, were liable to the common mistakes of unlettered 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



7 



and inexperienced biographers and interpreters. Our 
Jesus is the Jesus of their gospels and epistles; and it 
matters little, that the living person bore the express 
image and uttered the express words of God, if they 
were liable to gross error in painting that image and 
recording those words. 

But it may be asked : ' Is there no basis for the 
plenary authority and virtual infallibility of the sacred 
writers, short of their inspiration in a peculiar and 
exclusive sense To say nothing in this connexion of 
the Old Testament, if the apostles w^ere honest men, 
may we not rely upon them as amply competent, 
without supernatural aid, to have been both the biogra- 
phers and the expositors of Jesus They were long 
with him ; must not every principle of his religion have 
so stamped itself upon their hearts, must not his spirit 
have so permeated their whole mental and moral being, 
as to take away the very power of mistake or failure.^ 
Must not their famiharity with him have done for them 
all, that express inspiration could have done.^' I reply, 
that, in the connexion of the apostles with our Saviour, 
there were many circumstances, which seemed to 
render some subsequent illumination necessary, in order 
to their being faithful historians and expositors. From 
our Saviour's baptism to his ascension, there was the 
space of only sixteen months; and, though his principal 
disciples were with him at intervals during the whole 
of this time, there intervened but seven months between 
the call of the twelve and the ascension; and, even for 
a part of that period, they were absent from him on 
their mission among the villages, whither he was to 



8 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



follow them. Much of their intercourse with him was 
in the distracting presence of muhitudes, much of it at 
times of fatigue, persecution, want, and fear. And, 
what is more to the point, according to their own 
account, they were ignorant of his true character till 
after his ascension. On the very ascension morning, 
they asked him, ' Lord, wilt thou at this time restore 
the kingdom to Israel? ' They must therefore have 
listened to him all along with erroneous impressions. 
They understood not a large part of what he said, at 
the time when he uttered it. His true glory was veiled 
from them, while they were with him. They saw and 
heard through a false medium, and could not, therefore, 
in all cases have derived true and just ideas from what 
they saw and heard. But what men misunderstand 
they are prone to misremember, and, however honestly 
and unconsciously, to misrepresent; nor, when they get 
the right key to conversations and events, which they 
have once misunderstood, is it easy to apply it to them 
retrospectively, so as to restore them in their original 
fulness and significancy, and to make them in their own 
minds and in the narration of them to others, just what 
they would have been had they possessed the key at 
the outset. According to the common laws of mind, 
the New Testament must have been tinged throughout 
by the early misapprehensions of its authors, and must 
have presented in biography and in doctrine a double, 
a Janus-faced image, made up of the temporal Messiah, 
whom the apostles at first expected, and of that spiritual 
Redeemer, with whom, after the ascension, they ascer 
tained that they had lived and walked. We thus 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



9 



should have had insufficient and unsatisfying Scriptures. 
But this is not the case. The only vestiges of these 
misapprehensions are in the repeated record of the fact, 
that they existed. Both biography and doctrine are of 
one shape and hue, — present a fabric entire and seam- 
less as the Saviour's own tunic, and are, throughout, 
adapted to the higher views of their Master's mission 
and character, w^hich ensued upon his departure from 
earth. Now this fact constitutes to my mind, in behalf 
of the inspiration of the writers of the New Testament, 
a presumptive argument too strong to be passed by 
without notice, though, in introducing the subject, I 
intended to speak only of the necessity for inspiration 
growing out of the misapprehensions, which existed 
during our Saviour's lifetime. 

For the reasons, which I have stated, rehgious books 
written by inspired men are within the range of antece- 
dent probability, and of reasonable expectation and 
desire. But how far should we antecedently expect 
the inspiration of the sacred writers to extend? So far, 
I reply, as is needful ' for doctrine, reproof, correction, 
and instruction in righteousness,' — so far as is necessary 
to afford an infalHble guide in matters of religious faith 
and duty. Up to this point we should expect, at least 
for the sacred writers of the latter and more perfect 
dispensation, plenary inspiration. But here inspiration 
must cease. We should not expect to see miracles 
wrought, (and inspiration is a miracle.) for other than 
religious ends; for no lower ends seem of sufficient 
moment to outweigh the advantages resulting from an 
undisturbed course of nature. We may, therefore, 



10 THfc: SCRIPTURES. 

consistently with the highest views of religious inspiration, 
suppose that the sacred writers were left to their own 
wisdom and research, with regard to such nnerely 
secular details as were within their reach; that they 
copied from ancient chronicles, compiled their genealo- 
gies from previously existing tables, and trusted to their 
own unaided memories for those minute and incidental 
circumstances, which had no religious bearing. This 
theory of inspiration may also be reconciled with any 
alleged imperfection of style in the sacred writings, 
with the slight discrepancies between the gospel narra- 
tives, with scientific inaccuracies in the Old or New 
Testament, in fine, with whatever objections have any 
other than a strictly religious aspect. While we would 
contend that, in a religious point of view, plenary 
inspiration pervades these records, we would regard 
and criticise them in every other aspect, as the writings 
of men, of like passions, infirmities, and errors with 
other men of their own times and nation. 

I now proceed to consider the positive grounds, on 
which this idea of inspiration rests. Let us first look at 
the New Testament. 

The following are some of our Lord's promises to 
his apostles before his death. ' I will pray the Father, 
and he will give you another helper, even the spirit of 
truth. 'He will guide you into all truth.' 'He will 
take of mine and shew it unto you.'f ' He shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever I have said unto you. 'J Here is an express 



* John xiv. 16, 17. 



t John xvi. 13; 14. t John xiv. 26. 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



11 



promise of two things, first, of a supernatural enlighten- 
ing of the minds of the apostles with regard to religious 
truth, and, secondly, of a supernatural quickening of 
their recollections, with regard to what Jesus had said 
while he tv^as with them. If the above quoted words of 
Jesus do not mean as much as this, they mean nothing. 
But the scene, at which they were uttered, was too 
solemn and too sad for unmeaning hyperbole. The 
Master was just leaving his frail and trembling company 
of apostles, and professed to be giving them precepts 
and promises, for their guidance and comfort when he 
should have gone from them; and it is a gross insult upon 
his spirit to maintain, that, at such a season, he should 
have fed them upon the wind, should have made a 
parade of oriental metaphor, and employed words, 
which literally denote a divine inspiration, to express no 
more than must happen to them according to the com- 
mon laws of mind. But were the recollections of 
Matthew and John thus miraculously quickened? Then 
may we cherish the undoubting assurance, that Jesus 
was, said, and did all that they represent him to have 
been, said, and done. Was the whole system of 
Christian doctrine and duty thus preternaturally laid 
open to John and James, Peter and Jude? Did the 
spirit of truth guide them into all truth, as Jesus had 
promised them? Then may we rest assured, that their 
epistles contain neither doctrines nor precepts of man's 
device, but the truth and the will of God. We may 
trace also in these epistles a consciousness of inspiration. 
For instancCj Peter thus classes himself and his fellow 
apostles with the prophets, to whom we well know that 



12 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



they ascribed divine inspiration. ' That ye may be 
mindful of the words, which were spoken before by the 
holy prophets^ and of the commandments of usy the 
apostles of the Lord and Saviour. 

Paul was not one of the twelve; but, if he was a 
sane and an honest man, he was equally inspired with 
them. He repeatedly, and in a great variety of forms, 
professes inspiration. Such is undeniably the import 
of passages like the following : ' The gospel, which 
was preached of me, is not after man ; for I neither 
received it of man, nor was I taught it but by the reve- 
lation of Jesus Christ.'! ' Which things we teach, not 
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in the 
words which the holy spirit teacheth. 'J ' If any man 
think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him 
acknowledge that the things, which I write unto you, 
are the commandments of the Lord.'<5> Again, speaking 
of his system of doctrine, Paul says : ' Ye received it 
not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word 
of God. 'II And again, in a similar connection : ' He 
that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath 
also given unto us his holy spirit. 'If Now let him, who 
thinks that St. Paul intended to express, by words like 
these, only the fact, that he had the same kind of inspi- 
ration, which every good man has, try the case, by 
supposing any good man of his acquaintance to use 
similar language. "Would not any man, of however 
high spiritual attainments, who in our day should talk 
thus about himself, be regarded, by every sober mind, 

* 2 Peter iii. 2. t Gal. i. 11, 12. t 1 Cor. ii. 13. 

§ 1 Cor. xiv. 37. II 1 Thess. ii. 13. IT 1 Thess. iv. 8. 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



13 



as either an imposter or a madman? These passages 
either mean nothing, or they denote divine inspiration 
in the special and exclusive sense of the words; and, if 
St. Paul was an honest man, and in full possession of 
his mental faculties, he was an inspired man. 

There remain two of the evangelists, Mark and 
Luke, who were not apostles, who were not included 
in the Saviour's promise of divine illumination, and who 
make no professions of inspiration ; who therefore may 
have been honest and faithful writers, without having 
been inspired. What shall we say of them ? The 
question of their inspiration is of secondary impor- 
tance ; for, 

1. Mark's gospel contains hardly anything not to be 
found in Mathew's or John's ; and Luke's additional 
matter, though considerable in amount, and of intense 
interest, could lay the foundation for no new doctrine 
or principle, but harmonizes entirely, intone and spirit, 
with the narrative of the apostolic evangelists. 

2. Though these two gospels do not bear the names 
of apostles, they were virtually apostolic productions. 
Mark was the intimate companion of Peter, and a tra- 
dition almost as old as his gospel, and handed down 
without dispute, informs us that he wrote by Peter's 
dictation. Luke distinctly avows himself, in the proem 
of his gospel, to be only the penman of what he had 
received directly from the apostles : — " Even as they 
delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were 
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word."^ As for 



* Luke i. 2. 

2 



14 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



the x\cts of the Apostles, a large part of the book Is 
mere history, and the record of scenes and events of 
which Luke was an eyewitness. There is good reason 
to suppose, that he was present at the miracle of the 
cloven tongues, on the day of Pentecost ; and in the 
latter part of the book, he expressly speaks of himself 
as St. Paul's travelling companion, and in this part is 
evidently copying from a diary. There can exist no 
doubt, as to his competency to write a history of affairs, 
in which he had so deep a personal interest, especially 
as, unlike the apostles during our Saviour's lifetime, he 
understood the religion, of which he was writing the 
history, and therefore saw things from the true point of 
view. Equally little doubt can there be, as to the 
decisive internal marks of accuracy and faithfulness, 
which this book presents. 

Yet it seems to me highly probable, that Mark and 
Luke were inspired men ; for, 

1. We have reason to believe, that miraculous gifts 
and endowments were not confined to the apostles ; 
and on whom else can we so readily suppose that they 
would have been bestowed, as on the intimate and 
confidential friends of such men as Paul and Peter ? 

2. We find that, from the earliest times, Mark's and 
Luke's writings were regarded by the church as of 
equal worth and authority with those of Matthew and 
John. 

The internal character of the New Testament 
strongly confirms the view, which we have taken, of the 
inspiration of its writers. Its style and tone befit men, 
whom a divine spirit had lifted above the passions and 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



15 



prejudices of the multitude. The completeness of 
their works, viewed collectively, may be regarded as a 
presumptive argument of great weight in favor of their 
inspiration. We know not how sufHciently to admire 
the divine skill displayed by the evangelists. They 
are relating the godHke pilgrimage, works, and words 
of one, who came from God and went to God, — of 
one, who stood out alone, of all beings that ever trod 
the earth, in the loftiness of his character, in the sanc- 
tity and vastness of his mission. Their narrative is 
brief, — it is crowded full with marvel and miracle, — 
it tells us throughout of heavenly things. Yet, without 
ever forgetting the heaven-descended, the son of God, 
they present to us, on almost every page, a section of 
our Saviour's domestic life and walk among men, show 
him to us as a son and a brother, as a neighbor and a 
friend, as a master and a citizen, among kindred, 
among strangers, among enemies, in the temple, at the 
marriage feast, in the house of mourning. In this wide 
diversity of detail, we see always the same majestic 
and godlike image, in no circumstances, however nar- 
row or humble, shorn of a ray of its glory. And 
when the authors confess that, while the divine original 
was upon the earth, they knew him not, we cannot help 
believing, that the image was reproduced, and sustained 
before their inward vision, by the spirit of God. We 
cannot help drawing a similar inference from the gen- 
eral character of the epistles. They relate, for the 
most part, to local and temporary questions, and dis- 
putes, and to a great diversity of these, many of them 
difficult, mixed, complex cases. Yet who will venture 



16 THE SCRIPTURES. 

to maintain, that these writers have, in a single in- 
stance, failed to apply to the solution of these cases 
the true spirit of Christ, and the strict law of right- 
eousness ? On the other hand, all their decisions 
are in entire accordance with each other, and with the 
spirit that breathes through the gospels ; and with the 
discussion of questions, that have passed away forever, 
they have connected so many maxims of eternal truth, 
and so many clear and expanded illustrations of great 
and everlasting principles, that these epistles must 
needs go down to the end of time, in the connexion in 
which they now stand with the gospels, as the best 
commentary upon them, and as an exhaustless repertory 
of Christian wisdom. 

These considerations are greatly strengthened by one 
of a negative character. There is in the New Testa- 
ment nothing which militates against our faith in the 
inspiration of its authors, — no brand of falsehood or 
folly to suggest an opposite theory, — nothing super- 
ficial or shallow ; but a profoundness and fulness, which 
no created mind has exhausted or outgrown* No man, 
whom men have consented to call wise, has professed 
himself to have advanced, in ethical or religious culture, 
beyond the New Testament ; but the wisest men have 
found in it enough to stretch and task their highest 
powers through the whole of life. But what unaided 
man had written, we might expect man to exhaust or 
outgrow. Taking our view of inspiration for a stand- 
point, we could not expect to find the New Testament 
more perfect, or, in any essential respect, other than it 
is ; — it is just such a collection of books as this 
theory would presuppose. 



THE SCRIPTJ^RES, 



17 



Add to this consideration, the wide, the ahuost in- 
conceivable contrast between the books of the New 
Testament and the residue of the early Christian writ- 
ings extant, sonie of which bear the nannes of personal 
friends and followers of the apostles, and, whether gen- 
uine or not, must belong to the age next succeeding the 
apostolic. The most edifying of these contain much 
that is puerile and absurd, — much that would settle in 
the negative, without dispute or division, the question 
whether their authors were inspired. The highest de- 
gree of veneration, which has ever been paid to the 
New Testament, cannot separate it from the best other 
writings of the primitive days of the church, by broader 
marks of distinction, than show themselves on the very 
face of the respective works. And yet, had the wri- 
ters of the New Testament been left without any 
greater degree of divine illumination, than these other 
writers had, we can hardly believe, that so very de- 
cisive marks of difference would have been presented. 

You will perceive, that I make the souls of the 
apostles and evangelists, and not the parchment on 
which they wrote, the seat of inspiration. I by no 
means assert, that the books of the New Testament 
received their outward shape, or even their existence, 
from a divine monition, urging one to write a gospel, 
and another an epistle. I suppose that they wrote as 
they saw the churches to need, and were guided by 
their own judgment as to what and when they should 
write. But they were men taught of the spirit, — 
guarded against error, and furnished with adequate 
views of truth and duty, by inspiration from on high ; 
2# 



I 



18 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



and out of the abundance within, they both spake and 
wrote. There was the same inspiration in their oral 
instructions. There was the same inspiration in what- 
ever else they may have written, which has not come 
down to us. There would have been the same inspiration 
in the writings, (had they left us any,) of Philip or Bar- 
tholomew, of Lebbeus or Simon the Canaanite. The 
exigencies of the case, and the testimony of the apos- 
tles themselves, convince us that they all, (and those 
immediately associated with them also,) were inspired 
men ; and the New Testament has come down to us, 
as the only surviving records of what was written under 
the influence of that inspiration. 

We come now to consider the inspiration of the 
writers of the Old Testament. In vindicating their 
inspiration, we are called upon to defend only the re- 
ligious character of the Old Testament. Is its general 
history defective and untrustworthy ? We think not ; 
but, if it be so, this fact touches not the question of in- 
spiration. Are its genealogies imperfect, and inconsis- 
tent with each other ? We are rather amazed that they 
should be so full and coherent ; but, were they drawn 
out with the minute accuracy of modern heraldry, we 
should not claim supernatural aid for their compilation. 
Is Solomon's Song a mere epithalamium ? If so, we 
do not believe that Solomon had any divine assistance 
in writing it. Are there many portions of the Old 
Testament, where the writers show themselves inde- 
pendent of peculiar divine guidance, and subject to 
the prejudices and errors of their times ? Be it so. 
We should antecedently expect the penmen of the 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



19 



earlier, and less perfect dispensation, to have been en- 
dowed with a less intense and pervading inspiration ; to 
have lived less constantly in the perception of spiritual 
truth ; to have had only transient glimpses, where the 
apostles enjoyed open vision. We should antecedently 
expect to find more of the merely human element in 
the earlier Scriptures, which were designed to be but 
as ' a light shining in a dark place, until the day should 
dawn and the day-star arise.' The question of in- 
spiration should be discussed solely with reference to 
the religious contents of the Old Testament. The 
question is, whether those things in the Jewish Scrip- 
tures, which were beyond man's knowledge or fore- 
sight, or far above the light of those times, were 
discoveries, speculations, happy guesses, or whether 
they were actually derived from the inspiration of God. 

Among the internal marks of the inspiration of the 
writers of the Old Testament, we would first name the 
religious unity and harmony, which pervade it. The 
writers all have the same conception of God, of devo- 
tion, of duty. This has not generally been the case 
among the less cultivated nations. The Jupiter of 
Homer differs from the Jupiter of the later Greek 
tragedians. The popular conceptions of every per- 
sonage in the Pantheon of Greek mythology, were 
gradually developed, and essentially modified by time. 
On the other hand, the Jehovah of Moses, Isaiah, and 
Malachi, at intervals of many centuries, during which 
vast revolutions had been wrought in the national con- 
dition and culture, is one and the same Jehovah. The 
conception reached the highest form, which language 



20 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



could give it, in the writings of Moses, nay, in the very 
name Jehovah; and in that form it remained fixed, 
until Jesus softened it with warmer beams of fatherly 
iove. Nor yet can we trace any diversity among these 
writers, as to the way in which God is to be worship- 
ped, or the duties which he requires. 

The frequent loftiness of thought and style in the 
Old Testament, beyond all other ancient writings, lift- 
ing the soul, as it were, into the very presence-chamber 
of the Deity, sustains the idea, that these majestic 
passages were written by men, whose spirits had been 
elevated and expanded by special nearness of converse 
with the Divine Being. There are portions of Isaiah 
and Ezekiel, there are some of the Psalms of David, 
which are, to the devout ear, more like a voice from 
heaven, than like the words of man. 

In fine, the Old Testament stands out in such a 
prominent contrast to all other equally ancient writings 
extant, even to the writings of the wisest and best men 
in the most cultivated ages, that w^e know not how to 
account for its sublime theology, its clear and high 
views of duty, its pervading tone of confidence and 
authority, except by ascribing to its authors special 
illumination from the spirit of God. We cast our eyes 
over the brightest pages of profane literature, and find 
nowhere a view of the divine nature, on which we can 
repose ; but see the mind distracted among a multitude 
of clashing deities, bowed down by the spirit of fear 
and trembling, dreading the thunderbolt without ever 
trusting the love of the divinity, cringing before gods, 
possessed of all human, and worse than human, pas- 



THE SCRIPTUilES. 



21 



sions and infirmities. We then turn to the Bible, and 
we read : ' The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not 
want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; 
he leadeth me beside the still waters. Though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, 
they comfort me.' Now all the logic in the world can 
never convince me, that we are indebted solely to that 
old barbarous king, of a nation unlettered and unrefined, 
for these sentiments, which anticipate the very spirit of 
Jesus ; which express all, and more than all, that the 
most pious heart can feel ; which will still be the bur- 
den of our song, when, beyond the reach of earthly 
infirmity, ' the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne 
shall feed us, and shall lead us ,unto Hving fountains of 
waters.' We might make similar remarks with regard 
to very many passages, which present glimpses of God, 
of truth, and of duty, which, our hearts tell us, are the 
very highest of eternal verities, and which stand en- 
tirely alone in the literature of the world before Christ, 
both as to their depth and fulness of meaning, and as 
to the tone of majestic and simple confidence, in which 
they are announced. 

The numerous fulfilled prophecies, contained in the 
Old Testament, offer a more tangible, though hardly a 
stronger proof of the inspiration of its writers, than 
the traits to which we have already referred. I have 
not time to discuss these prophecies They cover a 
large portion of human history. The fulfilment of 
some of them can be distinctly traced in the past ; that 
of others is now in progress, and known and read of 



23 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



all men. The present condition of the Hebrew nation 
could hardly be described, in many of its distinctive 
and unprecedented features, with more accuracy, by a 
modern geographer, than we find it foretold in the Old 
Testament. Could blind chance have conjured into 
being phantoms of poetic fancy, that should thus cor- 
respond to actual events across the gulf of ages ? 
Could she have brought together, and worked into the 
brains of those old seers just the same elements, which 
after many centuries Providence would embody in the 
counsels and destinies of nations ? This is harder to 
believe, than that she could paint a flower, or blunder 
a world into being. The recurrence of the same har- 
monies, at distant intervals, in the sphere-music of time, 
can be accounted for, only by supposing the harmony 
to have been first struck by the same omnipotent hand 
that repeats it. 

We have also, in favor of the inspiration of the writ- 
ers of the Old Testament, the testimony of the infalli- 
ble Jesus and of his inspired apostles. Jesus says, 
' Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal hfe ; and they are they which testify of me,' ^ 
that is, which foretell me, which have a prophetic 
character, — a character which could result only from 
divine inspiration. And again, ^ Had ye believed 
Moses, ye would have believed me ; for be wrote 
concerning me,'f prophetically, of course. In like 
manner Jesus, epitomizing the whole Old Testament, 
speaks of what was written concerning him ^ in the 
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms. 'J 

* John V. 39. t John v. 4 t Luke xxiv. 44. 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



23 



He often also quotes these writings as of divine au- 
thority and final appeal. 

The apostles also continually quote the Old Testa- 
ment as authoritative. St. Peter says: 'The prophecy 
came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men 
of God spake as they were moved by the holy spirit.'* 
Paul too writes to Timothy : ' All Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God, (or, more properly, pervaded 
by a divine afflatus^) and is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness.' f 

I have now shown, 1 trust, that the inspiration of 
the sacred writers rests on a firmer basis, than that of 
anile superstition. I am aware, that on this subject 
low and lax views often find favor. But to me faith 
on this point appears the part of sound philosophy. If 
God stands to us in the paternal relation, in which 
Jesus presents him, an intrinsic, a priori probability 
attaches itself to any theory, in proportion as it brings 
him near to his children, and appeals to their implicit 
confidence. In a world not fatherless, for the short- 
sighted and frail children of an infinite Father, it is 
more philosophical to believe, than to disbelieve in mir- 
acle and inspiration. The philosophy of the filial heart 
is higher and of vastly more worth, than that of the 
doubting head. 

Such are the views of inspiration, which lead me, 
on all subjects of religious doctrine and duty, to bow 
submissively to the authority of the written word ; and, 
in this deference to the voice of Scripture, I have the 



* 2 Peter i. 21. 



t 2 Tim. iii. 16. 



24 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



entire and cordial sympathy of the great body of Unita- 
rian Christians. Many of them were educated in a 
different creed ; but have been made Unitarians solely 
by the diligent, prayerful study of the Bible. The Bi- 
ble is our only confession of faith, — it is to us at once 
the pillar and the ground of the truth. But we con- 
tend for the right of appealing for authority on all con- 
troverted points to the Scriptures as originally written. 
Our common translation, we regard as in the main ac- 
curate, — as generally representing the sense of the 
sacred writers. But our translators were uninspired 
and fallible men. They were many men, and en- 
dowed with different degrees of learning and acumen. 
They were the partizans of peculiar views of Cliristian 
truth and of ecclesiastical government. They were 
appointed to their work by a shallow-minded and pe- 
dantic monarch, who gave them in some respects ex- 
press and peremptory rules of procedure, which they 
dared not violate. They lived also in the infancy of 
biblical criticism. Since their day, many ancient Man- 
uscripts of the New Testament have been brought to 
light, and collated with each other, and with the ear- 
liest versions, so that the Greek text, now received 
among critics of all denominations, presents not a 
few deviations from the ' received text,' so called, 
which was the basis of their translation. For these 
reasons, we must, in matters of controversy, some- 
times appeal from the translation to the original. All 
Christian scholars do this. I shall make such appeals 
occasionally, though very seldom, in the following Lec- 
tures ; but, when I refer to the original, it will not be 



THE SCRIPTURES. 



25 



to my own peculiar views, or to the views of any one 
denoniination, as to what the text of the original ought 
to be. I shall always refer to the text of the original, 
as settled by the researches of learned men of various 
denominations, and as received by enlightened Chris- 
tians of every portion of the Church. 

With the views of Scripture now unfolded and ex- 
plained, the question to be answered in the following 
Lectures is simply this : What testimony do the sacred 
writings, in their original form and fairly interpreted, 
bear with reference to God, to Christ, and to the na- 
ture, duty, and destiny of man ? My sole design and 
purpose is to reason from the Scriptures ; my only ob- 
ject is to receive and to communicate the light of God's 
revealed word upon those departments of religious 
truth, on which Christians are the most widely at vari- 
ance. And my sincere prayer for you and for myself 
is, that the Infinite Spirit of truth may guide us into all 
truth, and through the truth may redeem and sanctify 
us. 



3 



LECTURE 1. 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 

EPHESIANS IV. 6. 

ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL, WHO IS ABOVE ALL, AND THROUGH ALL, AND 
IN YOU ALL. 

My object, in the course of lectures which I now 
comnience, is to exhibit, so far as I am able, a fair and 
candid view of the points, on which most of us differ 
from other classes of Christians, and of the grounds, on 
which our peculiar views rest. In doing this, it will of 
course be necessary for me to make reference to the 
creeds of others ; but such reference will be made as 
seldom as possible, in a spirit of unfeigned kindness, 
and, I trust, in a kindly tone and manner. My aim is, 
not controversy, but truth. I wish to aid you in the 
establishment of your own faith, not to furnish you with 
the means of attacking your neighbors. I wish to have 
you capable of maintaining and defending your views of 
Christian truth when they are assailed, and of instruct- 
ing in them the young and inquiring ; but should be ex- 
ceedingly sorry to see among you that proselyting spirit, 
which would make incursions into other folds, or hurl 
the missiles of theological warfare at those, who have 
adopted other modes of faith. Equally sorry should I 



28 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



be, that you should take any views of truth on my 
authority. Let me act only as your pioneer. 

Our text implies the unity of God. This doctrine 
there is no need of our defending against Polytheism. 
But there has grown up in the Christian church a doc- 
trine, which, to those who reject it, seems as much op- 
posed to the divine unity, as any form of Polytheism 
is. I mean the doctrine of the Trinity. This will 
be my subject this evening. We will first inquire 
whether the Bible teaches, or implies, the view of the 
divine nature designated by this word ; and, if it shall 
appear that the Bible teaches no such doctrine, we will 
then endeavor to ascertain whence it comes. I shall 
reserve for future lectures the arguments for and against 
the supreme divinity of our Saviour, and for and against 
the personality of the Holy Spirit, and shall confine 
myself this evening to the single point of a threefold 
distinction in the divine nature. 

We ought at the outset to define the Trinity. But 
here we are thrown into confusion ; for hardly any two 
writers will agree upon the same definition. We may, 
however, classify the definitions given, and may thus 
show the different senses, in which this doctrine has 
been professed and held. 

I. There are many professed Trinitarians, particu- 
larly of the English church, who maintain the suprem- 
acy of the first person of the Trinity, and the subordi- 
nate rank of the other two. This was the belief of 
Bishop Bull, who wrote much upon the subject, was 
called in England a Trinitarian, and was deemed an 
able defender of the creed of his own church, but 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 29 

whose writings would pass, (and justly,) as Unitarian, 
on this side of the Atlantic. Indeed, his is nearly the 
same doctrine, on account of which. Rev. Noah and 
Thomas Worcester, of our own State, were, thirty or 
forty years ago, cast out as heretics by their clerical 
brethren ; and a singular fact it is, that, for similar 
views, similarly expressed. Christian ministers should, 
on one side of the Atlantic, be ci*owned with fame and 
honor, in a Trinitarian church, as defenders of the faith, 
and on the other side should be compelled to take up 
the cross of persecution, and bear the reproach of here- 
sy. But our American clergy were right. The sec- 
ond and third persons of the Trinity either are self- 
existent, or were created. If self-existent, they must 
needs be independent. Having within themselves the 
cause of their own existence, they must be complete 
and self-sufficient, so that they cannot have come into 
subjection to any other being. But, according to Bishop 
Bull, they are subordinate ; and, if subordinate, they 
are not self-existent, but must have been created, can- 
not then have existed from eternity, and therefore are 
not God. Bishop Bull, indeed, admits that they were 
derived from the divine essence, which is merely an 
obscure and involved way of saying, that they were 
created out of nothing. 

2. There are others, (and they are very numerous in 
our own country,) who understand by the Trinity a 
threefold classification of the divine attributes. Accord- 
ing to this view, God, being still one and the same 
being, in nature and providence, is called the Father, — 
in- the work of redemption, the Son, — in his convert- 
s' 



30 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



ing and sanctifying influences, the Holy Spirit. Thus 
we have God the Creator and Preserver, God manifest 
in the flesh, and God dwelling and working in the 
human soul ; and these three, not separate beings, but 
the same being regarded in three different aspects. 
This is the view presented in that very popular doctri- 
nal work. Abbot's Corner Stone ; and, from the gen- 
eral acceptance which this book has found, I infer that 
this view of the Trinity is not deemed heretical. But 
it differs from Unitarianism only in name and in form of 
statement. 

3. Another form, in which the Trinity has been 
held, supposes three distinct and equal divine minds 
united by a mutual consciousness of each other's voli- 
tions and acts. Sherlock, an eminent divine of the 
Church of England, says : ' To say that there are three 
divine persons, and not three distinct infinite minds, is 
both heresy and nonsense. The distinction of persons 
cannot be more truly and aptly represented, than by the 
distinction between three men ; for Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, are as really distinct persons, as Peter, 
James, and John. We must allow the divine persons 
to be real, substantial beings.' Howe, the celebrated 
Calvinistic divine, speaks of the three divine persons as 
' distinct, individual, necessarily existing, spiritual be- 
ings,' forming together ' the most dehcious society.' 
This comes nearer an intelligible doctrine than most 
statements of the Trinity. But it sounds strangely 
like Tritheism ; and I hardly know how those, who 
maintain it, can be said to believe in the unity of God. 

4. There is another class of Trinitarians, probably 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



31 



the largest of all, who profess to believe the doctrine, 
without attempting to understand or explain it ; that is, 
they hold the phraseology of the doctrine sacred, but 
attach no meaning to it. The nearest approach that 
they can make to a definition of the Trinity, is, to say 
that it is three somewhats somehow united. 

Such are the various forms, in which the doctrine of 
the Trinity is held in the Christian church, — forms so 
diverse from each other, that, were we to define the 
Trinity, so as to include the views of all who profess to 
believe in it, we could only say that it denotes God to 
be both three and one. 

Let us now see whether the Bible teaches a Trinity. 
This doctrine, if it be true, is of the utmost interest 
and moment, and ought to mould and shape all our re- 
ligious notions, and to be recognized in all our praises 
and our prayers. We should, therefore, expect to see 
it very clearly set forth in a revelation, purporting to 
come from God. But so far is this from being the 
case, that Trinitarians do not quote a single text as 
declarative of this prime article of their creed. They 
admit that it is nowhere distinctly stated in the Bible. 
Formerly, the three stories of Noah's ark, and the 
proverb, ' A threefold cord is not easily broken,' oc- 
cupied a prominent place among Trinitarian proof- 
texts ; but no one would think of using them now, and 
there remains not a single text from the Old Testament, 
which Trinitarians now cite as designating a threefold 
distinction in the divine nature. 

There are, however, numerous instances, in which, 
when the Almighty is spoken of in the Hebrew Scrip- 



33 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



tures, a plural form is used, — sometimes a plural noun 
connected with a singular verb, — sometimes a plural 
pronoun with a plural verb, when God is represented 
as speaking in the first person. The Hebrew word in 
the Old Testament most frequently translated God, is 
Elohifn^ a plural noun, literally meaning gods ; but it is 
usually connected with verbs in the singular, so as to 
indicate that but one person is denoted by the plural 
noun. There are also several instances, in which we 
find such forms of speech as these : ' Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness,' — 'Let us go 
down, and there confound their language.' Now though 
this form of speech has often been quoted to prove a 
plurality of persons in the divine nature, I can hardly 
conceive of its being quoted, with such a purpose, by 
any person moderately well acquainted with the Hebrew 
tongue. This plural form is a common Hebrew idiom, 
employed whenever anything of peculiar dignity or 
magnitude is spoken of Grammarians call it the plural 
of excellence^ or majesty ; and truly learned and can- 
did Trinitarians admit that it is nothing more. Calvin, 
whose orthodoxy none will doubt, sets aside this argu- 
ment for the Trinity. Professor Stuart, in his Hebrew 
Grammar, speaks of this form as simply denoting dig- 
nity or majesty, and as having no connection with the 
idea of plurality. Permit me to give you one or two 
examples of the way, in which this plural of excellence 
is employed. You all remember, in the book of Job, 
the description of the behemoth, by which is probably 
meant the hippopotamus. Behemoth is the plural of 
behemah^ which means a beast. As used in Job, it is 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



33 



a plural noun joined with singular verbs and pronouns, 
and evidently means a great beast ; and the hippopota- 
mus was denoted by this indefinite word, expressing his 
vast size and strength, because there was no name for 
him in the Hebrew. The same plural form is used 
when false gods are spoken of. Baalim and Jlshtaroth 
are plural nouns. ' The lords of the Philistines gather- 
ed them together, to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon, 
their god^^ literally, gods.^ The same plural word is 
used, when the Almighty says to Moses, ' See, I have 
made thee a god^ literally, gods^ (elohim^) to Pharaoh. 'f 
Where it is said that the butler and baker ' had offend- 
ed their lord the king of Egypt,' J the Hebrew word is 
lords^ (one of the plural titles of the Almighty ;) and 
so it is where Joseph's brethren say of him : ' The man 
who is the lord^ literally, lords^ of the land, spake 
roughly unto us.' § Many of you well know what the 
Septuagint is, — a Greek translation of the Old Testa- 
ment, made by learned Jews long prior to the Christian 
era. These Jews must of course have understood their 
own language, and must have known whether there was 
any mysterious signification couched in Elohim^ and 
other kindred forms ; but they invariably render these 
Hebrew plurals by Greek nouns in the singular, with- 
out any additional qualifying words. 

There is another consideration of great weight, with 
reference, not to this point alone, but to the Old Testa- 
ment generally, and one which demonstrates beyond 
dispute, that the Trinity was not taught in the Jewish 



* Judges xvi. 23. 
t Genesis xl. 1. 



t Exodus vii. 1. 
§ Genesis xlii. 30. 



34 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



scriptures. It is this : the Jews, in general, both in 
ancient and modern times, have been opposed to this 
doctrine, have left no trace of it in their standard com- 
mentaries and religious works, and have resisted the 
use of their sacred writings in proof of it. There was 
indeed a seeming exception to this remark, in a numer- 
ous sect of Platonistic Jews, whose head-quarters were 
at Alexandria. They, in common with the later Pla- 
tonists generally, maintained a Trinity, yet less as a 
theological than as a philosophical dogma, drawing their 
authority for it less from Moses and the prophets, than 
from Plato and his disciples, from whom, as I believe, 
it crept into the Christian church. These Trinitarian 
Jews have had a few successors in more recent times. 
But to the Jews in general, the Trinity has been for 
ages, and still is, the greatest stumbling-block in the 
way of their conversion to Christianity. It is univer- 
sally admitted, that a very large part of the early Jew- 
ish converts rejected the Trinity ; and it is a striking 
and significant fact, that great numbers of the Jews 
continued to become Christians up to the date, when, as 
we believe, the Trinity was foisted into the Christian 
system, while, since that date, the conversion of a sin- 
r gle Jew has been one of the rarest events. 

These facts indicate that the Trinity could have form- 
ed no part of the Jewish revelation. But, if this were 
the case, we should expect to find this doctrine formal- 
ly and explicitly announced in the New Testament, and 
occupying there the prominent place, which of right 
belongs to a radically new view of the divine nature. 
But how is this ? It is not pretended that there is in 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



35 



the New Testament any express declaration of this 
doctrine ; and there are quoted but two texts, in which 
the names of the three persons are said to be placed 
together in such a way, as strongly to imply a trinity 
in unity. 

The text most relied on is the form of baptism ^ in 
or into the name of the Father^ and of the Son^ and of 
the Holy Ghost or Spirit.' * One would think, at first 
sight, that this form implied anything rather than three 
equal persons ; for what mean the terms, Father and 
Son ? If they mean anything, must they not denote the 
derived and subordinate existence of him, who is term- 
ed the Son ? It is of no avail to call this an unsearch- 
able mystery The words Father and Son, as used in 
this connection, either mean something or nothing. If 
nothing, then does the Bible mock man's ignorance by 
the wanton use of words without meaning. But if they 
mean anything, they must at least denote that the Son 
owes his existence to a Father, therefore is not self- 
existent, and consequently is not God. Yet more, the 
words employed in this text to denote the Holy Spirit 
are, in the original, a neuter noun and adjective ; and, 
though words in the neuter gender might naturally be 
used to signify a divine ijifluence^ we can hardly sup- 
pose that they would be selected to designate a divine 
person. Is it said, that the sacred writers could not 
have thus connected unequal names ? What shall we 
say then of this passage, — ' All the congregation . 
, . . . worshipped the Lord and the king ? ' f 



* Matthew xxviii. 19. 



t 1 Chron. xxix. 20. 



36 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



Or of this, — ' I charge thee before God, and the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the elect angels ? ' * Is it said, that, 
baptism being a form of dedication, the sacred writers 
could not have connected with it any but divine names ? 
I reply, that the Israehtes are said by St. Paul to have 
been ' baptized unto Moses,' f and that he also speaks 
of the disciples of Christ as having been ' baptized into 
his death. 'I In the former instance, men are said to 
be baptized unto one, who confessedly is not God ; and 
in the latter, into what, it must be admitted, is not a 
person. 

The form of baptism depends not for its appropriate- 
ness on the doctrine of the Trinity. The infant or the 
convert, on being initiated into the church of Christ, is 
most naturally and fittingly consecrated to the Father 
God, whom Jesus revealed and manifested, to the great 
Teacher himself, and to the regenerating and sanctify- 
ing influence from heaven, without which one cannot 
truly be a Christian. 

The other Trinitarian proof-text is the apostolic ben- 
ediction : ' The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy 
Ghost, be with you all.'§ This proves nothing. Had 
a formal statement of the Trinity been here intended, 
the second person would not have been placed first. 
The obvious sense of the benediction is : ' May the 
favor of the great Head of the church, the love of his 
God and your God, and the free and constant partici- 
pation of his sanctifying influences, be yours forever.' 

* 1 Tim. V. 21. t I Cor. x. 2. t Rom. vi. 3. § 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



37 



These are the only texts, which Trinitarians in gen- 
eral cite as declarative of a threefold distinction in the 
divine nature. There still stands in our English Bible, 
a text, which more than implies the Trinity. It is this : 
' There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three 
are one.'*' It is now admitted, on all sides, that this 
verse formed no part of the original text of the New 
Testament. The highest authority for the text of the 
New Testament is that of ancient Greek manuscripts, 
of which several hundreds of either a whole or a part 
of the New Testament, bearing date from the fourth 
century down to the invention of the art of printing, 
have been examined and collated. No less than a 
hundred and fifty of these manuscripts contain the first 
epistle of John ; but the text in question is not found 
in one of them. The next highest authority is that of 
manuscripts of ancient versions of the New Testament. 
This text is wanting in all of this class of manuscripts, 
except in those of the Vulgate Latin, and is wanting in 
all the earliest manuscripts, even of that. The next 
highest authority is that of the numerous Scriptural quo- 
tations of the earlier Christian writers. Now, none of 
the Greek fathers, who used the New Testament in its 
original, have quoted this text, or recognized its exist- 
ence, no, not even in the height of the Arian contro- 
versy, when every text that could be made available 
was pressed into the service. This text was not print- 
ed in the earliest printed editions of the Greek Testa- 



4 



* 1 John V. 7. 



38 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



ment ; and, when it was first printed, it was translated 
into the Greek from the Latin of the Vulgate, — the 
accredited version of the Romish church. Erasmus, 
the greatest biblical scholar at the era of the Reforma- 
tion, had pubhshed two editions of the New Testament 
without inserting this text. He was earnestly remon- 
strated with for omitting it ; and his reply was, that he 
would insert it, if a single Greek manuscript containing 
it could be found. A manuscript was found and sent 
him, — a manuscript undoubtedly prepared for that ex- 
press purpose, as there are no traces of its previous 
existence. He, to make his promise good, inserted the 
disputed text in his third edition ; and it so happened 
that this third edition became the basis of the generally 
received Greek text, which was used by King James's 
translators. Such is the history of the only text in the 
Bible, which indisputably stands where it has no right- 
ful place. But it occupies this place chiefly in editions 
and translations of the Vulgate, and in our common 
Enghsh Bibles. Jt is omitted in critical editions of the 
Greek Testament. Luther omitted it in his German 
Bible ; Calvin spoke doubtingly of it ; nor do I find a 
single critic or commentator, however orthodox, who 
leaves it unquestioned. Wardlaw, the most able cham- 
pion of the Trinity within the range of my reading, 
says of this text : ' This text should have been entitled 
to hold the first place, if its genuineness had been un- 
disputed, or disputed on slender grounds. I freely 
acknowledge, however, that the evidence of the 
spuriousness of this celebrated passage, if it were even 
much less conclusive than in my own mind it appears 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



39 



to be, would be quite sufficient to prevent me from rest- 
ing upon it any part of the weight of my argument.' 

So much for this text. But let me in connection 
with it, though rambling from my main subject, say a 
word upon the certainty, which we enjoy, that the New 
Testament has come down to us substantially as it was 
at first written. These hundreds of manuscripts, these 
ancient versions, these numerous and copious quota- 
tions by the fathers of the church, constitute a vast 
array of witnesses, who all agree in testifying to the 
genuineness, sentence for sentence, and almost word for 
word, of the Christian Scriptures as we have them. To 
be sure, slips of the pen in transcribing have produced 
many slight differences, corresponding to the misprints 
in a printed book. But, in the whole of the New 
Testament, there is not a single sentence, not a single 
phrase of importance, and there are but two words of 
essential significance, with regard to which the vast 
majority of the witnesses do not agree. 

You must, I think, see with me on how frail a found- 
ation the Scriptural argument for the Trinity rests. 
There is one other consideration, to which I would 
allude with all possible brevity. The first person of 
the Trinity is termed the Father ; but did it never 
occur to you, that the doctrine of the Trinity deprives 
him of all his fatherly attributes, and transfers them to 
the Son and the Holy Spirit ? Their offices are all 
fatherly ; his are those of the relentless potentate and 
judge. For which is the true Father, — he, who 
gives his life a ransom for the children ; or he, who 
demands and receives the full price for their blood ? 



40 THE DIVINE NATURE. 

Which is the true Father, — he, who sits cold and 
stern at the helm of the universe ; or he, who draws 
nigh to the children's hearts in breathings of counsel, 
comfort, and hope ? If this distinction between the 
three persons have any reality, is not he that redeems, 
or he that sanctifies, the Father ? To which of these 
three persons does the Trinitarian come with the fullest 
assurance, in the most confiding manner, with the most 
trustful spirit ? Not to the Father, (so called,) but to 
the Son. To the Father go up the cold and formal 
vows, the set praises ; to the Son, the warm outpour- 
ings of the full heart, and those inward groanings, too 
deep, too fervent for utterance. Nor can it be rejoin- 
ed, in answer to this reasoning, that the first person of 
the Trinity is called Father with reference to the other 
two persons, and not with reference to man. For the 
being, whom Jesus calls Father, he continually sets 
forth as man's Father. In talking to his disciples, he 
calls him your Father, as often as my Father ; and 
even calls him by both titles in the same sentence, as, 
for instance, when he says : ' I ascend unto my Father 
and your Father.'^ Thus are the details of the doc- 
trine of the Trinity at war with its phraseology. Does 
not this discrepancy indicate the error of man, rather 
than the wisdom of God ? Would it not seem a mock- 
ery of human ignorance, for the Almighty to set forth 
his mere abstract essence, dread power, and infinite 
wisdom, and bid men call that cold abstraction Father^ 
and to refuse this dearest of all names for those of his 



* John XX. 17. 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



41 



attributes, to which his children cling with filial confi- 
dence and love, — to make them cry, Abba^ Father^ 
where they feel not the spirit of the adoption, and to 
suppress that cry, where the heart is bursting to give it 
utterance ? This must verily be the commandment of 
men, and not the doctrine of God. 

But whence crept the Trinity into the Christian fold } 
This question I shall now answer by giving as brief a 
sketch as possible of the history of the Trinity. But 
the first part of my history must be that of simple 
Unitarianism ; for vestiges of no other form of doctrine 
can be traced back farther than the third century, nor 
can we find any evidence that the doctrine of three 
equal persons in the Godhead was maintained till late 
in the fourth century. I am prepared to state, without 
fear of contradiction, that the doctrine of the equality 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, cannot be found 
in any work of the three first centuries, and that there 
cannot be found, with reference to the divine nature, in 
any genuine Christian work of the first two centuries, 
any statement of doctrine, equivalent, or approaching 
to, or consistent with, the modern doctrine of the Trin- 
ity. Is it said, that, because there was no controversy 
about this doctrine, it was passed over in silence ? I 
reply, that, as the Christian fathers wrote chiefly about 
the divine nature, attributes, and will, if they had this 
idea, they could not have failed to use corresponding 
phraseology ; for Trinitarian phraseology is now used 
by Trinitarians, not only in controversial writings, but 
in prayers and in practical sermons, and has been freely 



42 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



used during ages when the doctrine was received with- 
out opposition or dissent. 

Yet farther, it is as certain as any fact in history, 
that the Trinity was not in primitive times the doctrine 
of the whole church, even if we were to admit that it 
was held by a part of the church. No ecclesiastical 
historian denies or doubts that the Judaizing Christians 
of Palestine, who formed distinct sects early in the 
second century, were Unitarians. There were two 
sects of these Christians, — the Ebionites and the 
Nazarenes. The Ebionites believed Jesus to have 
been a mere man, the son of Joseph and Mary ; and 
they are uniformly spoken of by the Orthodox fathers 
as heretics. The Nazarenes believed in the miraculous 
birth and superhuman dignity of Jesus, but regarded 
him as a created and finite being ; and they seem to 
have been regarded as Orthodox in the earliest times, 
and are not spoken of as heretics till the fourth century. 
For these facts, it may be sufficient to refer you to the 
ecclesiastical history of Mosheim, himself a Trinitarian. 
Now could the Trinity have been believed by the great 
body of the church during the first three centuries, and 
these Nazarenes have been left without anathema and 
obloquy ? 

There is yet another remark of importance to be 
made with regard to the early Christian writings. They 
consisted not only of works for the edification of those 
within the church, but many of them were written for 
the defence and propagation of the new faith, and were 
addressed to Jews and Pagans, — to the opposers and 
persecutors of the church. In writings of this class, 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



43 



the most important doctrine of the whole Christian sys- 
tem could not have been passed over in silence. It 
must needs have been clearly stated and expounded for 
the benefit of the uninitiated, and elaborately defended 
against doubts and objections. Let us see then what 
kind of language the early advocates of Christianity 
used in propagating and defending their rehgion. 

On the day of Pentecost, Peter addressed a con- 
fused, skeptical, and mocking multitude, many of whom 
had come from afar, and were utter strangers to the 
new religion. Hear his simple statement, which made, 
we are told, three thousand converts. ' Jesus of Naza- 
reth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, 
and wonders, and signs, w^hich God did by him in the 
midst of you, as ye yourselves also know ; him, being 
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have cru- 
cified and slain, whom God hath raised up.'* Hear 
also in what terms Paul preached Jesus for the first 
time before the superstitious and idolatrous Athenians. 
' He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge 
the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath 
ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all 
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.' f Hear 
also St. Paul's synopsis of his own preaching, in that 
bold, manly defence before Agrippa, in which you will 
all feel that it was infinitely beneath the apostle's 
character to have used concealment or equivocation. 
' I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and 



* Acts ii. 22-24. 



t Acts xvii. 31. 



44 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



great, saying none other things than those which the 
prophets and Moses did say should concie : that Christ 
should suffer, and that he should be the first that should 
rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the peo- 
ple, and to the Gentiles.'^ 'Saying 7ione other 
things^^ — could St. Paul have honestly made such a 
denial as this, if he had preached so novel and mo- 
mentous a view of the divine nature as the Trinity 
unfolds, especially when it is considered that this must 
have been an entirely unknown doctrine to Agrippa ? 

The only other Christian apologist, whom I have 
time to quote, is Justin Martyr, who addressed a de- 
fence of Christianity to Antoninus Pius about the year 
140, and about the same time wrote a defence of 
Christianity against Jewish objections, in the form of a 
dialogue with Trypho the Jew. Justin, I remark in 
passing, has always held an unquestioned rank among 
the Orthodox fathers. Speaking of Jesus, (in the dia- 
logue with Trypho,) he says : ' The Father is the 
author to him, both of his existence, and of his being 
powerful, and of his being Lord and divine.' ' He was 
subordinate to the Father, and a minister to his will.' 

I will now offer you a few extracts from the fathers 
of the first three or four centuries, premising that I 
shall quote from no reputed heretic, but only from 
those, whom the Trinitarians regard as representatives 
of the Orthodoxy of their times. I shall have no diffi- 
culty, I think, in showing you that these fathers were 
w^hat we now call Unitarians. 



* Acts xxvi. 22, 23. 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



45 



Clement of Rome, a personal friend of St. Paul, 
(believed on the concurring testimony of antiquity to 
be the Clement mentioned by St. Paul in the epistle 
to the Philippians,)^ styles Jesus 'the sceptre of the 
majesty of God.' We find, towards the close of his 
epistle to the Corinthians, the following doxology, — 
could a Trinitarian have written it ? ' Now God, the 
Inspector of all things, the Father of all spirits, and 
the Lord of all flesh, who has chosen our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and us by him, to be his peculiar people, grant 
to every soul of man that calleth upon his glorious and 
holy name, faith, fear, peace, long-suffering, patience, 
temperance, holiness, and sobriety, unto all well- 
pleasing in his sight, through our High Priest and Pro- 
tector, Christ Jesus, by whom be glory, and majesty, 
and powder, and honor unto him, now and forever.' 

Clement of Alexandria, who wrote near the begin- 
ning of the third century, says : ' The Mediator per- 
forms the will of the Father. The Word is the 
Mediator, being common to both, the Seal of God 
and the Saviour of men, God's Servant and our In- 
structor.' 

Origen, the most learned of the fathers, wrote about 
the year 225. He says : ' The Father only is the 
Good ; and the Saviour, as he is the image of the in- 
visible God, so is he the image of his goodness.' ' If 
we know what prayer is, we must not pray to any cre- 
ated being, not to Christ himself, but only to God, the 
Father of all, to whom our Saviour himself prayed.' 



* Philippians iv. 3. 



46 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



' We are not to pray to a brother, who has the same 
Father with ourselves, Jesus himself saying, that we 
must pray to the Father through the Son.' If this be 
not Unitarianism, what is it ? 

Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history, who 
wrote about the year 320, says : ' There is one God, 
and the only-begotten comes out of him.' ' Christ, 
being neither the Supreme God, nor an angel, is of a 
middle nature between them ; and, being neither the 
Supreme God, nor a man, but the Mediator, is in the 
middle between them, the only-begotten Son of God.' 
' Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, and the first- 
born of every creature, teaches us to call his Father 
the true God, and commands us to worship him only.' 

I had marked for quotation many more extracts 
from the same and other fathers of the church ; but I 
omit them for the sake of brevity. And now^ let me 
ask, could these fathers have been Trinitarians, in the 
modern sense of that word ? Could a modern Trini- 
tarian have written the passages which I have now 
quoted ? Had I quoted them, without naming their 
authors, would you not have taken them for extracts 
from the writings of Unitarian divines ? I trust that 
there is no need of my saying, that I have endeavored 
to represent the opinions of those times impartially. 
During the second and third centuries, from a source 
which I shall shortly indicate, there was a gradual in- 
troduction of Trinitarian phraseology into the church. 
But I no more believe that I myself am a Unitarian, 
than I do that the Christian fathers of the first three 
centuries, whose works have come down to us, were 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



47 



all of them virtually Unitarians. Though, from the 
time of Justin downward, there was a gradual depart- 
ure from the simplicity of the gospel, and a tendency 
towards mystical views of the divine nature, and 
towards the recognition of a threefold distinction 
therein, yet I believe, that, down to the end of the 
second century at least, if not of the third, the doc- 
trine of three equal persons in the Godhead would have 
been deemed as grossly heretical, as that of the undi- 
vided unity of God is anywhere regarded at the present 
time. 

We have now reached the period of the Arian 
controversy, and the celebrated Council of Nice. 
The Arian controversy was on this wise. Alexander, 
bishop of Alexandria, in an assembly of his presby- 
ters, maintained that the Son was of the same essence 
with the Father. This assertion was opposed by 
Arius, one of his presbyters, who maintained that the 
Son was totally and essentially distinct from the 
Father, being the first and noblest of his creatures. 
The dispute waxed warm, each side finding strong and 
determined champions, until at length Alexander sum- 
moned a numerous council, and deposed Arius and 
his adherents from their offices in the church. Upon 
this, the controversy spread like wildfire, inflamed 
the whole church, and finally led to the summoning 
of the Council of Nice, which met in the year 325, 
condemned by vote of the majority the doctrine of 
fArius, procured his banishment into Illyria, and estab- 
lished what is called the Nicene creed, — a creed not 
strictly Trinitarian, though strongly tending that way. 



48 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



This creed applies the title God to our Saviour ; but 
calls him God out of or derived from God^ and thus 
does not make him a self-existent and independent 
being, so that this last step towards the full develop- 
ment of the Trinity still remained to be taken. There 
was a large minority of the Council that dissented from 
this creed, though it was backed by the authority of 
the emperor Constantine, who took an active part in 
the session. Only five years afterwards, the emperor, 
having become an Arian, repealed the laws against 
Arius, and instituted a series of oppressive measures 
against the partizans of the Nicene creed. Ten years 
after the session of the Council of Nice, the Council 
of Tyre deposed Athanasius, Alexander's successor, 
and reinstated Arius and his adherents in their former 
offices and honors in the Alexandrian church. From 
this time, for a period of more than forty years, the 
Arian party generally had the supremacy ; and the 
Nicene creed could not, therefore, have been called 
the creed of the church until near the close of the 
fourth century. 

The Athanasian creed is the oldest monument ex- 
tant of the doctrine of three literally equal persons 
in the Godhead. This was probably written by Hi- 
lary, who died in the latter part of the fourth century. 
It has been recognized in the Romish church as an 
authentic compend of faith, since the ninth or tenth 
century. It is retained in the English book of com- 
mon prayer ; and its exclusion from the service of the 
American Episcopal church was assented to with great 
reluctance by their transatlantic brethren. It is a very 
long and prolix document, and I cannot burden you 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



49 



with the whole of it ; yet I am going to give you a 
pretty long extract from it, for two reasons, j^rs^, that 
you may see in its own canonical language what absur- 
dities and contradictions the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity involves ; and, secondly^ that you may contrast 
it, as I read it, with the 'simplicity that is in Christ,' 
' We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in 
unity ; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing 
the substance. For there is one person of the Father, 
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. 
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of 
the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty 
coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, 
and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreate, 
the Son uncreate, and the Holy Spirit uncreate. The 
Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, 
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father 
eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. 
And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. 
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor 
three uncreated ; but one uncreate and one incompre- 
hensible. So likewise, the Father is Almighty, the 
Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty. And 
yet there are not three Almighties ; but one Almighty. 
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy 
Spirit is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but 
one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son 
Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord ; and yet not three 
Lords, but one Lord. For like as we are compelled 
by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person 
by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden 
5 



50 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



by the Catholic religion to say, There be three Gods 

or three Lords And in this Trinity, none is 

fore or after other ; none is greater or less than anoth- 
er ; but the whole three persons are coeternal to- 
gether and coequal.' Of all which and much more 
hke it, the creed in its sequel charitably asserts, and 
the good people of the English church are compelled 
by the rubric to hear on no less than thirteen Sundays 
and festivals in the year : ' Which faith except every 
one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he 
shall perish everlastingly.' The only appropriate 
response to this would be in the words of the apostles, 
' Who then can be saved ? ' 

We have now seen that the doctrine of the Trinity 
is not taught in the Bible, and that it formed no part 
of the Christian system as maintained by the primitive 
church. Whence then came it ? I have no hesita- 
tion in referring it to the Platonic philosophy. Plato 
had written much about three divine principles, which 
he had styled the One or the Good, Mind or Word, 
and Soul or Spirit. His followers had talked and 
written mystically about these same three principles, 
until the number three had become with them a sacred 
number, and a divine Trinity had assumed a prom- 
inent place among the doctrines of the later Platonists, 
insomuch that it may be traced in all their works. In 
process of time, many eminent Platonists became 
Christians. Justin Martyr was a devoted disciple of 
Plato. Alexandria, which, as we have seen, was the 
birth-place of the Christian Trinity, was the head-quar- 
ters of Platonism ; and the early Trinitarian fathers were 



THE DIVINE NATURE. 



51 



all Platonists, and were therefore Trinitarians before 
they became Christians. These fathers, having been 
much and long in the schools of philosophy, could not 
come to Jesus with the simplicity of httle children. They 
were unwilling to be disciples of Christ alone. They 
quoted Plato and Jesus Christ in the same breath, be- 
lieved in both with equally unhesitating assurance, in- 
corporated the Platonic Trinity into their religious 
creed, remodelled the Christian system in the Platonic 
mould, and then complimented the memory of Plato 
on his having anticipated the essential doctrines of the 
gospel. That this statement is not exaggerated will 
appear from the fact, that, in their extant writings, the 
early Trinitarian fathers always quote Plato and his 
followers, as freely as they do the New Testament, 
on the subject of the Trinity. St. Augustine expressly 
says, that he was in the dark with regard to the Trinity, 
until he found the true doctrine concerning the divine 
Word in a Latin translation of some Platonic writings, 
which the providence of God had thrown in his way. 
I might, had I time, adduce numerous quotations from 
the Christian fathers to the same effect. 

I have now accomplished, as far as possible within 
the limits of a single lecture, the work proposed. 
I have shown you, as I think, that the Trinity 
is not a doctrine of the Bible, that it was not be- 
lieved or taught by the early Christian fathers, and 
that it derived its technical phraseology, its ideas and 
its ultimate form, from the Platonic philosophy. 

One word in conclusion. If the view which I have 
now presented be just, ours is no new doctrine, but 



52 



THK DIVINE NATURE. 



the faith first delivered to the saints. What we be- 
heve, was the creed of the church in those days, when 
there were tongues of fire and hearts all zeal, when 
the word was quick and powerful, when the disciples 
offered their all upon the altar of their faith, and mul- 
titudes of such as should be saved were daily added 
to the company of the believers. Why may not the 
same creed bear like fruits now, and among us ? May 
it not, God helping, if we are fahhful to our light ? 
Let us not, if we think that we have the truth, idly 
boast of our superior discernment ; for it only makes 
our negligence and sluggishness the more blameworthy. 
Were we blind, we should have less sin. But now 
that we say. We see^ our sin remains. If we have 
the light, let us walk as children of the light. If we 
deem ourselves, in our views of religious doctrine, 
more faithful than our fellow Christians to the sublime 
declaration of Moses, ' The Lord our God is one 
Lord,' let us be no less faithful to the commandment, 
which he annexes to that declaration, — 'Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy might.' 



LECTURE II. 



JESUS CHRIST. 

JOHN XIV. 28. 

MY FATHER IS GREATER THAN I. 

The question of the supreme divinity of Jesus 
Christ will be my subject this evening. I shall 
reserve for the next lecture, an explicit statement of 
my own views with reference to our Saviour's person- 
al rank and character, and I shall now confine myself 
to the simple question : Was Jesus of JYazareth iden- 
tical with the Almighty Creator ? 

Before entering upon my subject, suffer me to make 
one preliminary remark. There are two modes em- 
ployed in proving doctrines from the Bible. One is 
the quotation of single texts, without reference to the 
context, or to the analogy of other portions of Scrip- 
ture. The other is based upon the comparison of a 
text with its context, and of Scripture with Scripture ; 
and has reference rather to the general tone and spirit 
of the sacred writings, or of particular books and 
passages, than to insulated words and phrases. The lat- 
ter, I hardly need say, is the only true mode. By the 
5* 



54 



JESUS CHRIST. 



former, any and every doctrine might be established ; 
and its use has, in fact, led to most of the broad differ- 
ences among Christians, and of the exceedingly wide 
departures from ' the simplicity that is in Christ.' No 
book in the world could bear such rules and modes of 
interpretation, as have been applied to the Bible. In 
all books, except scientific treatises, free use is made 
of metaphor and hyperbole, which are always defined 
and hmited by what goes before and what follows, 
but which, taken by themselves and explained literally, 
would imply the most puerile and absurd notions. Now 
the fashion among theologians has been, to set up the 
seeming signification of some three or four isolated 
clauses in the Bible, as overweighing the clear and ac- 
knowledged tenor of the entire Scriptures, as if the in- 
spired writers could have failed to recognize constantly, 
and to state explicitly, any fundamental doctrine of the 
religion, which they taught. 

I can best illustrate the prevalent mode of Scriptural 
interpretation, by supposing a case. Suppose that, 
fifteen or twenty centuries hence, there should be 
remaining some two or three authentic biographies of 
Napoleon Bonaparte. Suppose that in one of these, 
written by an admiring Frenchman, it should be said of 
him: 'He was a very God among his soldiers, — adoring 
millions prostrated themselves before him,— he took in 
the nations of the earth at a glance, — his will was 
omnipotent.' Suppose that in another of these biogra- 
phies, written by a bigoted English tory, it should be 
said of him : ' He was a very fiend incarnate, — the 
prince of darkness never let loose upon earth a more 



JESUS CHRIST. 



55 



fearful angel of destruction.' Suppose that, though, 
elsewhere throughout these books. Napoleon was per- 
petually talked of as a man, and the books, taken as 
a whole, made utternonsense upon the supposition that 
he was not a man, there yet should arise a set of critics, 
who maintained that Napoleon was a divine being, and 
another set, who maintained that he was a demon, — 
these two classes of critics would aptly represent the 
generality of modern theologians and biblical inter- 
preters. 

The true mode of interpretation obviously Is, first, 
to get at the general tone and spirit of the book, or 
books, which we wish to interpret, and then, when we 
find a passage of difficult, doubtful, or ambiguous 
signification, to seek for it the interpretation, or to 
give it that one of several possible interpretations, which 
best accords with the tone and spirit of the whole. 
Thus, if the entire New Testament from beginning to 
end, if every discourse of our Saviour, if every expo- 
sition of Christian doctrine made by the apostles, if the 
whole tone of spiritual phraseology, declares, or neces- 
sarily implies, the inferiority of the Son to the Father, 
and yet there are some half-dozen, or more, single 
texts, which seem to teach his supreme divinity, but 
admit of a different interpretation, I contend, that we 
are bound to interpret these texts in accordance with 
the voice of Scripture taken collectively ; and I also 
maintain that, where there is any reasonable doubt with 
regard to the reading, or the punctuation of a passage, 
we are bound to prefer that reading, or that mode of 
punctuation, which best accords with the rest of the 
New Testament. 



56 



JESUS CHRIST. 



But let me not be misunderstood. I by no means 
say that half a doxen texts, or even a single text of 
Scripture, may not be sufficient to establish a religious 
doctrine. On the other hand, there are subjects spoken 
of but once or twice, on which I derive as definite and 
firm an opinion, from one or two texts, as I should 
from a volume. And if our Saviour were named but 
six times, or but once, in a series of books proffering 
the claims to plenary and conclusive authority, which, 
in my view, the New Testament proffers, and if, each 
of those six times, or that once, he were spoken of as 
the supreme God, I should then believe him to be the 
supreme God. But the case is very different. He 
speaks of himself, and is spoken of, many hundred 
limes, in the New Testament. Take away some half- 
dozen, or, at most, a very few of these texts, and no 
one will contend that there remains a single case, in 
which the phraseology does not necessarily imply 
inferiority to the eternal Father. These few texts, as 
I interpret them, imply no other doctrine. But yet 
my Trinitarian brethren contend that they teach our 
Saviour's supreme divinity. Admitting, for the moment, 
that such were their most obvious meaning, the question 
is, whether they ought to outweigh the hundreds of 
texts that teach a different doctrine. Christ cannot 
be both a self-existent and a created being, both God 
and the Son of God, both equal and inferior to the 
Father. And if he, many hundreds of times, calls him- 
self, and is called by his authorized interpreters, a 
created being, the Son of God, and inferior to the 
Father, then it seems to me that the few texts, which 
might bear a different meaning, ought to be interpreted 



JESUS CHRIST. 57 

in accordance with these hundreds of texts. With this 
general statement of facts in the case, I presume that 
no Trinitarian would find fault. But the Trinitarian 
would maintain that the hundreds of texts ought to be 
interpreted by the few. 

These things premised, I now proceed to exhibit 
the chief reasons, why I find myself constrained to 
regard our Saviour as a created and subordinate being. 

In the first place, our Saviour never declares himself 
the supreme God, in any of the discourses or conver- 
sations recorded in the gospels. This is not a doctrine, 
for which it is common to appeal to our Saviour's own 
words ; and yet, often as he spake of himself, and plain 
and confidential as was his intercourse with his disciples 
during the last scenes of his life, it hardly seems possi- 
ble that he should have left them without a hint of his 
true nature and glory. I know of but two of his own 
sayings, which are ever quoted as referring to his 
supreme divinity ; and I doubt whether these would be 
quoted in a serious argument. One of these is, ' I and 
my Father are one,'^ which he sufficiently explains, 
when he afterwards prays for his disciples, ' that they 
may be one, even as we are one.' f The other is, 
' He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,' J w^hich, 
in the next verse, he explains by saying : ' Believest 
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
me.'* ' I am astonished that this should ever have been 
regarded as a Trinitarian proof-text. I know not a 
more decidedly anti- Trinitarian text in the Bible. 
For, if there be three distinct persons in the God- 
head, seeing one of them, is surely not seeing the 

* John X. 30. t John xvii. 22. t John xiv. Q. 



58 



JESUS CHRIST. 



Other, — seeing the Father, is not seeing the Son. But 
if, as Unitarians believe, Christ dwelt in God, and God 
in him, if Christ was the image, the representative of 
the Father, then he, who had seen him, had seen the 
Father,— he, who had been conversant with the image, 
had become acquainted with the attributes of the 
original. 

If our Saviour were indeed the supreme God, a fact, 
no less striking and unaccountable than his own silence 
on the subject, is, that the apostles did not proclaim 
him as God in their preaching to the unbelieving Jews 
and Gentiles. The cross, the ignominy, the lowly 
and suffering estate of Jesus, was the great stumbling- 
block to those, among whom they preached ; and it 
w^as, therefore, a prime object with them to extol and 
exalt him, to set forth his claims upon the reverence 
of man, and to exhibit his intrinsic greatness and ex- 
cellence. Was he, who was despised and rejected of 
men, indeed the Lord God Almighty ? Of this fact, 
then, before all things else, would Peter have assured 
the unbelieving Jews, and Paul the inquisitive and 
credulous Athenians. This doctrine, so momentous, 
could not have been suppressed in preaching, to such 
a degree, as not once to find its way into the numerous 
discourses contained in the Acts of the Apostles. If 
Peter and Paul did not preach it, they cannot have be- 
lieved it. If they did preach it, the eminently care- 
ful, faithful historian, St. Luke, could not have omit- 
ted this most prominent and striking point in their 
preaching. 

I now offer you a consideration of very great, and, 
it seems to me, decisive weight. If our Saviour were 



JESUS CHRIST. 



59 



the almighty Creator, there was a time when his disci- 
ples first became aware of the fact ; for they could not 
have believed it from the beginningo When Peter re- 
buked him, when they all forsook him, when they went 
weeping to his sepulchre, they could not have regarded 
him as God. Now, whenever they learned the fact of 
his supreme divinity, it must have wrought a marvellous 
and entire change in their feelings and conduct, — it 
must have created the most strongly marked epoch in 
the experience of their lives. It must have been with 
the utmost awe, with emotions of overpowering fulness, 
that they ascertained that the Creator of all worlds had 
been dwelling with them, calling them his brethren, and 
submitting to their petulant and inconstant humors, — 
had broken bread for them, and even washed their 
feet. Must not such a stupendous discovery have 
left some trace of itself in the sacred record ? Could 
it have taken place, without at least some notice of the 
time when, and the circumstances under which it was 
made ? Did they first become aware of this fact after 
his resurrection ? How then can we account for their 
preserving their former familiar, fraternal style of inter- 
course with him till the morning of the ascension ? 
And yet their conversation with him on that very morn- 
ing, differs not in the least, as to its general tone and 
character, from those which they had held with him 
before his death. Or was it on the day of Pentecost 
that this amazing fact first became known to them ? If 
so, would not Peter's discourse have been full of this 
new revelation ? Could he have so entirely veiled the 
light that had just burst upon him, as coolly to com- 



60 



JESUS CHRIST. 



nience his discourse : ' Jesus of Nazareth, a man 
approved of God among you, by miracles, and won- 
'ders, and signs, which God did by him,' and to utter 
not a single word, which the most astute critic can 
torture into a recognition of the deity of Christ ? But 
it is impossible for the. Trinitarian to say when the 
apostles were first apprized of this truth ; nor is there, 
in the gospels or the Acts of the Apostles, the faintest 
trace of such a discovery's having been made at any 
time. Now I could more easily account for the omis- 
sion of all notice of our Saviour's birth, or death, or 
resurrection, or ascension, than for the omission of 
the announcement of this, — the most amazing and 
momentous fact of all, — indeed, the most interesting 
and important fact in the world's whole history. 

I next remark, that the whole phraseology of the 
New Testament, with regard to our Saviour, implies his 
created existence, and subordinate rank. In the first 
place, he is constantly called the Son of God. The 
word Son, as applied to him, either has, or has not, a 
meaning. If it has no meaning, then must it have 
been employed by our Saviour and his apostles in idle 
mockery of man's understanding, — a supposition un- 
worthy to be entertained for a moment, and yet one, 
which our Trinitarian brethren cannot, it seems to me, 
entirely disavow. But if the word Son does mean 
anything, the least that it can imply is, that the Son 
owes his existence to the Father, therefore is not self- 
existent, did not then exist from all eternity, and con- 
sequently is not God. 

I would next advert to the mode, in which our Sa- 



JESUS CHRIST. 



61 



viour uniformly speaks of himself. Here are some of 
his declarations, which I might multiply indefinitely : 
' My Father is greater than I.'* 'I can of mine own 
self do nothing.'! ' The words that I speak unto you, 
I speak not of myself ; but the Father that dwelleth 
in me, he doeth the works. 'f ' I proceeded forth and 
came from God ; neither came I of myself, but he sent 
me.'§ 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent 
me.'ll 'Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, 
no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the 
Son, but the Father. ' God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son.'^^ ' Why callest 
thou me good ? there is none good but one, that is 
God. 'ft I ascend unto my Father and your Father, 
and to my God and your God.'jJ But I might go on 
in this way, and quote from every chapter in the gos- 
pels, and from every verse in which our Saviour speaks, 
and show you every attribute of supreme divinity dis- 
claimed, over and over again, from his own lips, without 
your being able to point to a single instance, in which 
he claims for himself any exclusively divine attribute. 
I might, also, show him to you praying to his Father, 
spending whole nights in supplication to Him, beseech- 
ing Him, if possible, to take from him the cup of 
death, and commending his departing spirit into the 
Father's hands. 

Is it said that Christ spoke and did thus in his human 
nature ? To this I reply, in the first place, that the 



* John xiv. 28. 
§ John viii. 42. 
John iii. 16. 



6 



t John V. 30. 
il John. iv. 34. 
tt Matt, xix. 17. 



$ John xiv. 10. 
•ff Mark xiii. 32. 
tt John XX. 17. 



62 



JESUS CHRIST. 



doctrine of the two natures of Christ is not claimed 
even by its advocates, as a doctrine of revelation. 
They quote no declaration, or passage of Scripture, in 
which they profess to find this doctrine expressed or 
implied. It is confessedly a hypothesis, which they 
have assumed as the only mode, in which they can 
reconcile Christ's supreme divinity with his own reite- 
rated assertions to the contrary. 

But this hypothesis of the two natures is far from 
obviating the difficulty, which it was designed to re- 
move. If Christ be the supreme God, and if it be of 
any importance for mankind to know the fact, it was 
of equal importance for him to have made the fact 
known, nor can there have been any adequate reason 
for his concealing it. Moreover, those, who maintain 
the doctrine of two natures, virtually charge our Saviour 
with equivocation. For does not the word / include 
the whole of the person speaking ? I myself am com- 
posed of body and mind. I know that jive and Jive 
are ten. My body does not know it ; but my mind 
knows it. Now suppose that I should say, ' I do not 
know how much Jive and Jive are,' and should after- 
wards explain myself by saying, ' My body does not 
know it, and, when I spoke, I had reference to my 
body,' what would you think of my honesty, or good 
sense ? You would certainly infer that I had made 
utter shipwreck of one or the other. Or suppose that 
I should say, ' I am unable to lift this manuscript,' and 
when you looked to see if I were smitten with a sud- 
den paralysis, I should add, ' I only mean that my 
mind cannot lift it, — my body can,' you would surely 



JESUS CHPaST. 



63 



regard my speech as anything but wise, and my intel- 
lect as anything but sane. Yet such is the imputation, 
which the doctrine of the two natures casts upon our 
Saviour ; and his exalted mission, and the momentous 
subjects on which he spoke, only render the imputation 
the more gross and unworthy. If our Saviour was the 
supreme God, he knew the day and hour, which he 
said that he did not know, — he had himself the powder 
to perform those works, which he said that he could 
not perform of himself, — he was the equal of the 
Father, whom he called greater than himself; and there 
remains no way, in which you can interpret these es- 
sentially false declarations from his lips, without casting 
reproach upon him, in whose pure and transparent 
spirit I believe that there was no guile. I press this 
point the more urgently, because to my eye the doc- 
trine of our Saviour's supreme divinity renders all his 
recorded discourses a tissue of prevarication, fitted only 
to bewilder and mislead his hearers. 

The hypothesis of the two natures also fails, inas- 
much as Christ expressly disclaims the peculiar attributes 
of deity in some of those relations and offices, which 
it is contended that he fills by virtue of his divine na- 
ture. I know not how often I have seen and heard the 
number, variety, and magnitude of his miracles, and his 
sovereign sway over diseases and the elements, cited as 
demonstrative proof of his supreme divinity. But it is 
of these very miracles that he says : ' The works that 
1 do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me,'* 



* John V. 36. 



64 



JESUS CHRIST. 



It is often said also, that none but God can be the final 
judge of man ; and Christ's designated office as judge 
of the living and the dead is referred to in every de- 
fence of the Trinity, as proof positive of his supreme 
divinity. But of this office he says, ' The Father hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son ; ' and, a few 
sentences afterwards, assigns not his deity, nor even 
his close connection with the Father, but, on the other 
hand, his relationship to man, as the reason why he is 
appointed man's judge : ' He hath given him author- 
ity to execute judgment also, because he is the Son 
of man.'* 

We have then our Saviour's uniform and often re- 
peated testimony to his own created existence and 
subordinate rank, in maintaining which we cannot surely 
be guilty of denying the Lord Jesus, inasmuch as we 
fasten our faith upon his own words. 

Do we look to the rest of the New Testament ? We 
still find our Saviour spoken of as a created and subor- 
dinate being. 'Him hath God ordained,' — 'Him 
hath God raised up,' — ' Him hath God set forth,' — is 
the burden of the apostolic preaching. How many 
times do the aposdes designate the Almighty as the 
the God^ or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 
Says St. Paul : ' There is one God, and one mediator 
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' f And 
again: ' Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 'f Says 
St. John: ' God loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins ; ' and again, in the same 



* John V. 22, 27. 



t 1 Tim. ii. 5. 



t 1 Cor. iii. 23, 



JESUS CHPaST. 



65 



chapter: ' The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour 
of the world.'* The apostles speak also of Christ, in 
his glorified state, as making intercession for his church. 
' Who also maketh intercession for us.'f ' If any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the righteous. 'J If Christ be God, to whom does he 
pray ? 

The apostles speak of Christ as subordinate to the 
Father, even in those passages, in which they ascribe 
to him the highest exaltation and glory, nay, in the very 
passages, which are currently quoted in proof of his 
supreme divinity on the alleged ground, that such honor 
can be rendered to no created being. Take this pas- 
sage for instance : ' Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name w^hich is above 
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. '§ God hath 
exalted him^ — God hath given him a name, — to the 
glory of God the Father; — how could his derived 
and subordinate nature have been more strongly ex- 
pressed ? 

There is a passage in one of St. Paul's epistles to 
the Corinthians, where the extent and universality of 
Christ's reign are spoken of in more ample and lofty 
terms than anywhere else in the New Testament ; but, 
as if to preclude the inference of his independent and 
supreme divinity, the apostle adds : ' When all things 



* 1 John iv. 10, 14. 
t 1 John ii. 1 . 

6# 



t Rom. viii. 34. 
§ Phil. ii. 9 - 11. 



66 



JESUS CHRIST. 



shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also him- 
self be subject unto him that put all things under him, 
that God may be all in all.'^ 

I might also quote that passage in the epistle to the 
Hebrews, where God is represented as saying to Christ, 
in language borrowed from the Old Testament, (in 
which a more free use is made of the word God, than 
in the New,) ' Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
ever ; ' but it is added, ' God, even thy God^ hath 
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fel- 
lows,'! — ^ passage, which suggests the inquiry, — if 
Christ was the supreme God, who was his God, who 
were his fellows, and who anointed him ? And through- 
out the introduction of this epistle, in which it seems 
the writer's sole object to heap the praises of a pious 
and grateful heart upon the glorified Redeemer, we 
have multiplied recognitions of his subordinate rank 
with reference to the Father. ' Whom he hath ap- 
pointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the 
worlds. 'J ' It became him, for whom are all things, 
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect 
through sufferings ; for both he that sanctifieth, and 
they that are sanctified, are all of one : for which cause 
he is not ashamed to call them brethren ; saying, I will 
declare thy name unto my brethren : in the midst of 
the church ivill I sing praise unto thee. And again: 
/ will put my trust in him. And again: Behold, I, and 
the children which God hath given me 



* 1 Cor. XV. 24-28. t Heb. i. 8, 9. t Heb. i. 2. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



67 



In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his 

brethren In that he himself hath suffered, 

being tempted^ he is able to succor them that are tempt- 
ed.'^ Now all these things may be said of the most 
highly exalted of God's children ; but surely not of 
God himself. Men are not God's brethren. God 
cannot sing praise to himself. God cannot be tempt- 
ed ; nor can he have been made perfect through suffer- 
ing. 

In the epistle to the Colossians, where it is said of 
Christ, that ' by him were all things created that are in 
heaven, and that are in earth,' and that 'he is before 
all things,' he is in the same sentence styled, not the 
Uncreated, but 'the first-born of every creature,' there- 
fore not self-existent, and consequently not God.f 

In the Apocalypse, where the highest titles and hon- 
ors are given to our Saviour, and where the rapt apos- 
tle sees the ransomed hosts casting down their crowns 
before him, he is still represented as a created being. 
Though he styles himself ' Alpha and Omega, the first 
and the last,':}: he still indicates that these expressions 
denote not the uncreated source of being, but the first- 
born Son ; for he afterwards calls himself ' the begin- 
ning of the creation of Goc?.'§ And again, while the 
redeemed are represented as assigning for the reason of 
their praise to the Father : ' Thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were crea- 
ted ; 'II to the Son their words are: ' Thou wast slain^ 
and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood, out of 



* Heb. ii. 10-18. 
§ Rev. iii, 14. 



t Col. i. 15-17. 
II Rev. iv. 11. 



$ Rev. i. 11. 



68 



JESUS CHRIST. 



every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and 
hast made us unto our God^ kings and priests,'^ — an 
ascription, of which every candid mind must see at 
once that the supreme God cannot be the subject. 

I next remark, that Christ did not present himself as 
an object of adoration, and that he commanded his dis- 
ciples to offer prayer, not to himself, but to his Father. 
I know not what could be more explicit than the follow- 
ing passage, where, speaking of the time when he should 
no longer be with his disciples, he says to them : ' In 
that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my 
name, he will give it you.'f 

In accordance with these words of their Master, all 
the recorded prayers of the apostles are directed to 
God, generally through Christ, or in his name ; nor do 
they, in a single instance, exhort their converts to pray 
or to give thanks to Jesus, but to God the Father, in 
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only case, I 
believe, in which authority for prayer to Christ is drawn 
from the New Testament, is that of the dying Stephen, 
when he said, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 'J But 
this was not prayer. This was not an address to an 
invisible being. It was speaking to one whom he saw. 
The heavens were opened, and he saw ' Jesus standing 
on the right hand of God.' He had a vision of the 
risen Saviour, with a countenance and gesture of wel- 
come for his dying servant. He thus commended his 
spirit to one, who had personally appeared, to lead him 
through the dark valley to the mansion of eternal rest. 

* Rev. V. 9j 10. tJohnxvi. 23. J Acts vii. 59. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



69 



One word more concerning this text. In our com- 
mon Bible, it reads: ' They stoned Stephen, calling 
upon God^ and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' 
But you will see that the word God is printed in italics. 
In this type are printed those words in the translation, 
which have no corresponding words in the original, but 
which the translators saw fit to supply. There are 
many, I suppose, who do not know what the italics in 
the Bible mean ; and the explanation of them ought to 
be printed in every copy. This text, omitting the 
word inserted by the translators, would read : ' They 
stoned Stephen, calling upon, or invoking, (of course 
the person last named, and that is Jesus,) and saying, 
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' There is another in- 
stance, in which our translators have inserted the same 
word God. ]t is this : ' Hereby perceive we the love 
of God^ because he laid down his life for us.'^ The 
words of God^ are in italics, and have nothing corres- 
ponding to them in the original, which, literally render- 
ed, reads: ' Hereby perceive we love, because he laid 
down his life for us.' 

But, to return from this digression, there is not, in the 
New Testament, a single instance of prayer to Jesus, 
nor is there a single case, in which homage is paid to 
him in the way in which it is paid to God. There are 
indeed many ascriptions of praise to him ; but they are 
always accompanied with the specific designation of his 
work and office as Mediator, and generally with an ex- 
press reference to the eternal Father as alone supreme. 



* 1 John iii. 16. 



70 



JESUS CHRIST. 



But there are several instances, in which persons are 
said to have worshipped Jesus. The word translated 
worship^ however, does not necessarily denote the ren- 
dering of divine honors, but simply prostration, or other 
external marks of homage or reverence, such as are 
paid by inferiors to superiors, by subjects to princes, 
and by servants to masters. For instance, the servant 
in the parable, who owed a thousand talents, fell down 
at his master's feet, ^ and worshipped him, saying, 
Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.'^ 
Indeed, most of these cases of worship or prostration 
before our Saviour, were cases of suppliants asking 
favors of him, at a time when, it is generally contended 
by Trinitarians, our Saviour's supreme divinity had not 
yet been made known. 

Such is the state of facts with reference to the re- 
cognition of our Saviour's supreme divinity by the 
apostles, in appropriate acts of devotion. Now, that 
neither prayer nor divine honors should have been ren- 
dered to our Saviour by his apostles seems to me en- 
tirely unaccountable, if he were properly the subject of 
them. It is equally unaccountable, that, if they had 
been rendered, no instance of the kind should have re- 
mained on record in the New Testament. And still 
more strange is it, that, if Jesus be the supreme God, 
he himself should not only have omitted to enjoin, but 
should have expressly forbidden prayer to himself, and 
should have prescribed a mode of prayer, in which he 
was indeed to be recognized as the Mediator, but not 
as the object of prayer. 

* Matthew xviii. 26. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



71 



I will now ask your attention to some ot the single 
texts urged by those who maintain the supreme deity of 
Christ. I do not intend, (for I have not time,) to bring 
forward all the proof-texts that have been urged or re- 
lied upon. But I shall choose those, which seem to 
me the strongest, and those, on which eminent Trinita- 
rians have laid the most stress. I shall purposely omit 
only those, on wdiich no independent reliance is placed, 
but which are brought forward as subsidiary to the argu- 
ment based upon the others. And let me add, that, 
should I omit in this lecture the consideration of texts, 
which any of you desire to hear discussed, if you mil 
name such texts to me, they shall be taken up in the 
next lecture. 

Those, who maintain the supreme divinity of our 
Saviour, rest for this doctrine, if I am not mistaken, 
solely on single texts. They draw no argument from 
the general tone and spirit of the New Testament. 
They admit that the argument from this source, so far 
as it has any bearing, goes against them. But they 
deem it overborne by the clearness and weight of the 
single texts, which they quote in behalf of their dogma. 

Of these texts, I set aside, as having no bearing on 
the doctrine in question, those, which simply teach our 
Saviour's continued presence with his church, and his 
power over the spiritual creation of God ; for these are 
truths, of which I entertain not the slightest doubt ; 
they imply no more than a headship over the church, 
conferred by the Father, and are but the fulfilment of 
those words of our Saviour: ' All power is given unto 



72 



JESUS CHRIST. 



me in heaven and in earth.'* Is given ^ — given then 
by the Being, to whom it of right belonged, and who 
is as competent to constitute the ascended Redeemer, 
head of the whole spiritual family above and below, as 
to make you and me fathers and heads of our own 
little households. Nor need we here consider those 
texts, which imply, or seem to imply, our Saviour's 
preexistence ; for the question, whether he existed be- 
fore his birth in Bethlehem, is entirely independent of 
that of his supreme divinity. 

The only text from the Old Testament, much relied 
on by the advocates of the doctrine in question, is this 
from Isaiah : ' Unto us a child is born, unto us a son 
is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder : 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the mighty God^ the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
Peace.'! In this text, the Hebrew word rendered 
Godj is not Elohim^ the word commonly so rendered ; 
but £Z, of which God is only a secondary meaning. 
The Hebrew Lexicons give for its meaning, jirst^ (as 
an adjective,) strongs mighty ; secondly^ (as an abstract 
noun,) strength^ power ; and thirdly and often, (by a 
natural transfer from an abstract to a concrete sense,) 
God. Our translators chose the last of the three 
meanings. I am disposed to think the first the true 
signification here, and should render the passage : ' He 
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Strong, Mighty, 
Father of eternity, that is, Author of eternal life, (or, 
perhaps. Father or Author of an age, — a new age or 
dispensation,) Prince of Peace.' 

* Matt, xxvii. 18. t Isaiah ix. 6. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



73 



Another text much relied on is from the epistle to 
the Philippians : ' Let this mind be in you, which was 
also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal ivith God ; but made 
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form 
of a servant.'* The true sense of this passage, ac- 
cording to many Trinitarian commentators, is this : 
' Let the same mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus, who, though in the form, the image of 
God, yet did not covet to appear as God^ that is, did 
not exalt or magnify him.self ; but, on the other hand, 
humbled himself, and took upon him the form of a 
servant.' But, however this passage may be inter- 
preted, any possible inference from it in favor of the 
supreme divinity of Christ is negatived by the sequel 
of the sentence, in which the apostle says that, on 
account of his thus humbling himself, ' God has 
highly exalted him^ and has given him a name above 
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, . ... to the glory of God the 
Father.'^ 

Another important text is this from the epistle to 
the Romans : ' Whose are the fathers, and of whom, 
as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, 
God blessed forever. Amen.'f The New Testa- 
ment, like all books of that age, was originally written 
without stops, and without division of sentences. 
The stops have been inserted, and the sentences 
divided in comparatively recent times. I suppose, in 



* Philippians ii. 5-7. 

7 



t Romans ix. 5. 



74 



JESUS CHRIST. 



common with many very eminent biblical critics, 
that, in this passage, there should be a full stop after 
the words, over all ; and that the words, ' God be 
blessed forever, — Amen,' were added as a doxology 
by the apostle, in the way, in which, in several in- 
stances, he has inserted a doxology In the midst of a 
paragraph. 

The exclamation of Thomas, when he recognized 
his risen Master, ' My Lord and my God^^^ is quoted 
as a proof-text for the doctrine under discussion, 
though I am surprised that it should be. It was 
a mere exclamation of glad astonishment on the 
part of Thomas. It was not addressed to Christ ; 
for it is not in the vocative case, which is used in the 
Greek when a person is spoken to. The words Lord 
and God are both in the nominative case. The sen- 
tence is elliptical ; and, w^ere we to supply the ellipsis, 
it would, as I suppose, read thus : ' It is my Lord 
and my God, that has brought this glorious event to 
pass.' But it was an abrupt, fragmentary exclamation, 
such as would naturally spring from overwhelming sur- 
prise, — not profane, because uttered in deep solemnity 
and awe, and in clear recognition of the divine hand, 
which had raised his Master from the dead. It was 
the most natural of all exclamations under the circum- 
stances in which it was uttered. Suppose that some 
one, whom we knew to have been long dead, should 
stand forth here in the presence of us all, would not 
the exclamation, My God^ be the solemn, fervent, 



=5^ John XX. 28. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



75 



heart-stricken utterance of every one present ? That 
any argument should ever have been based upon this 
exclamation seems to me excessively strange, when I 
consider the whole connection in which it stands. 
Thomas had, a moment before, expressed his entire 
unbeHef as to the identity of his Master. Jesus then 
shewed* him his wounds, to convince him of his iden- 
tity. This was all that he undertook to prove to 
Thomas, and all that the wounds could prove. Now, 
if Thomas had ever believed Christ to be God, he 
would never have doubted his power to rise from the 
dead. His skepticism with regard to the resurrection, 
proves that he had not previously believed that Christ 
was God. But Christ's resurrection no more proved 
him to be God, than the rising of Lazarus proved him 
to be God. Thomas had therefore had no proof of his 
Master's supreme divinity presented to his mind ; and 
one, so slow to believe as he was, could hardly have 
leaped to so momentous a conclusion, without some- 
thing on which to base it. 

The next passage, to which I shall refer, is this from 
the first epistle to Timothy : ' Without controversy, 
great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest 
in the fleshy justified in the spirit^ seen of angels^ 
preached unto the Gentiles^ believed on in the worlds 
received into glory, "^^ There is much discrepancy 
with regard to the reading of this passage among the 
early manuscripts and versions ; but, to my mind, the 
balance of argument is in favor of the common read- 



* 1 Timothy iii. 16. 



76 



JESUS CHRIST. 



ing, and the text conveys to my apprehension, nothing, 
which I do not gladly beheve and embrace. Nay, I 
would adopt the passage as embodying my confession 
of faith with regard to Jesus Christ. I joyfully and 
thankfully acknowledge, that, in the person, in the 
moral attributes, in the unquenchable love of Jesus, 
God was manifest in the fleshy — that he was justified^ 
that is, had false notions and sentiments concerning 
himself uprooted, and true ideas and feelings implanted 
among men, through the workings of his spirit^ — that 
angels beheld with adoration this display of divine wis- 
dom and love, — that God thus manifested was pro- 
claimed to the Gentiles^ — believed on in the world^ — 
received in glory ^ (for such is the literal rendering of 
the words,) that is, gloriously received and welcomed 
in the hearts of Christ's true disciples. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul bids the 
Ephesian elders to ^ feed the church of God^ which 
he hath purchased with his own blood. '^^ Lord occurs 
here instead of God in many of the earlier manu- 
scripts and versions, and is deemed the true reading 
by the best critics. But I will take the text as it 
stands, and will seek no advantage from the difference 
of reading. Now, were it the general voice of the 
New Testament that the supreme God suffered, and 
died, and shed his blood upon the cross, I should 
certainly interpret this text as referring to his death. 
But, the contrary being the voice of the New Testa- 
ment, if I admit the common reading of this passage. 



* Acts XX. 28. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



77 



I must interpret it in accordance with what I know 
St. Paul to have believed and taught. Now St. Paul 
uniformly taught that ' God spared not his own Son, 
but delivered him up for us all ; ' and I must, there- 
fore, suppose bloody in the passage under discussion, 
to denote Son^ as it does, in common whh the word 
fleshy in all languages, both ancient and modern. ' He 
hath purchased with his own hlood^^ that is, with his 
own Son. 

I now ask your attention, for a few moments, to 
the introduction of St. John's gospel. In order to 
understand this, we must look at the purpose for which 
St. John wrote his gospel. On this subject, we are 
fortunate in having, among others, a competent and 
unimpeachable witness in Irenaeus, — a friend and 
pupil of Polycarp, who was a personal friend of St. 
John. It is the uniform testimony of antiquity, that 
St. John wrote his gospel after the other three^ and at 
Ephesus, — the head-quarters of the Gnostic heresy, 
which was the first wide departure from the simplicity 
of the Christian faith ; and Irenseus says, that the be- 
loved disciple wrote his gospel for the express purpose 
of refuting the false and absurd notions, which the 
Gnostics were beginning to spread in Asia Minor. It 
concerns us then to know what the Gnostics believed. 
They engrafted upon the Christian faith a hybrid phi- 
losophy, or to speak more correctly, they engrafted 
some few Christian phrases and ideas upon a hybrid 
philosophy, in which Platonism was blended with the 
oriental mysticism. They maintained that the supreme 

God dwelt in the remote heavens, surrounded by 
7# 



78 



JESUS CHRIST. 



chosen spirits, *^onSj (as they called ihem,) and gave 
himself very little concern with what took place upon 
earth ; that the world was created by an inferior and 
imperfect being, who was also the author of the Jew- 
ish dispensation ; that Christ was sent by the supreme 
God to deliver men from the tyranny of this creator, 
and from the yoke of his law ; that there were also 
various created spirits, or ^Mons^ sustaining different 
offices, independently for the most part of the supreme 
Deity, the names of some of which ^ons were Life^ 
Lighty and particularly, the Logos or Word^ which 
represented the divine Reason or Wisdom ; and that 
the •^on Light became incarnate in John the Baptist. 
All these spiritual existences were represented as dis- 
tinct from each other, and from the supreme God, so 
that the system was a sublimated form of polytheism. 
To fuse these disjointed fragments of deity into one, 
— to rebuke these babblings of philosophy, falsely so 
called, about a divided sceptre and a scattered divin- 
ity, — this was the purpose of St. John's introduction. 
And not only so ; but we find that the same pervading 
purpose gives shape, and character, and, as it were, 
the key-note, to his whole gospel. With this object 
in view, it was incumbent on him to show that Life^ 
and Lights and the Logos or Word^ were not distinct 
from the supreme God ; that the supreme God 
created the world, and gave the Jewish law ; that the 
same God sent John, the forerunner ; and that the 
same God sent Jesus Christ, not to destroy, but to 
complete the law, — not to deliver men from its 
tyranny, but to finish for them the work, which the 



JESUS CHRIST. 



79 



law had begun. All this is shown in the first eighteen 
verses of the gospel, — how comprehensively and 
beautifully you will see, if you keep in mind what I 
have told you of the Gnostic notions, while I read the 
passage to you, with such explanations as may be re- 
quisite. 

. In the beginning was the Word^ the Logos, the 
divine Reason or Wisdom, — not a created being, nor 
yet an emanation from the Supreme; but it always 
existed, — the Word was with God^ and never had 
a separate existence ; and the Word was God^ was 
and is inseparable from his essence and his attributes. 
The same Word, the same divine Wisdom, repeats 
the evangelist, was in the beginning with God, And 
now St. John directs his attention to another of the 
Gnostic errors, namely, that of the world's having been 
created by an inferior divinity. All things^ says St. 
John, toere made by him^ that is, by God, (not by 
the Word, — him refers to God^ which is the nearest 
preceding noun to which it can refer.) All things were 
made by the supreme God, and icithoiit him was not 
anything made that was made. In him also was Life ; 
and the Life was the Light of men. Life and Light 
are not distinct existences ; but God is the source of 
life, and, where it flows from him, light flows with it. 
Jlnd the Light shines in darkness; but the darkness 
comprehended it not, God has shed light upon men 
in the darkest times, though men have chosen darkness 
rather than light. 

There was a man sent from God^ ichose name was 
John, He came for a witness^ to bear testimony of the 



80 



JESUS CHRIST. 



lights concerning the divine light, that all men through 
him might believe. Ue was not that lights not himself 
an jEon, a spiritual emanation, — he was a man, like 
other men ; but ivas sent to bear witness of the Light. 
He, from whom he came, God^ was the true Light that 
enlightens every man that comes into the world. God 
had not removed himself from his creation, had not 
dwelt apart in the remote heavens. He was already, 
he was always in the worlds and the world had been 
made by him; yet the world knew him not. He had 
come to his own^ to the Jewish nation, his favored and 
covenant people ; but his own received him not., that is, 
as a nation, they had in general disowned and rejected 
him in heart and deed, though not in name. But to as 
many as received him., to the patriarchs and to the faith- 
ful among their posterity, to them who believed on his 
name., he gave power to become the sons of God., his 
own spiritual children, born., not of blood., nor of the 
will of the flesh., nor of the will of man., (children not 
in any human or earthly sense,) but of God, 

*3.nd^ in these latter days, the Word^ the divine 
Wisdom, became fleshy and dwelt among men ; and we^ 
I and my fellow-apostles, beheld its glory ^ — the glory 
of the only begotten., of the chosen Son, of the Father^ 
full of mercy and of truth. 

John bore testimony concerning him^ and cried., say- 
ing.. This is he., of whom I said., He that cometh after 
me., has taken precedence of me ; for he was before 
me., — was my superior. And of his fulness., of the 
rich truth and mercy of the Word made flesh, have we 
all received; yet not, as false teachers now say, mercy 



JESUS CHRIST. 



81 



instead of wrath, a silken instead of an iron yoke, but 
grace for grace^ — one gracious dispensation to super- 
sede another. For the law was given through Moses^ 
and that was a law of mercy, adapted to its own times ; 
hut now mercy and truth for all times have come through 
Jesus Christ. J\*o man has seen God at any time ; 
the only begotten Son^ who is in the bosom of the 
Father J he has declared him^ — has made him known. 

Thu s wesee that the introduction of John's gospel, 
so far from authorizing the breaking up of the divine 
nature into a plurality of persons, is a noble assertion 
and vindication of the divine unity, well worthy the pen 
of inspiration, — a passage, in which, as with a prophet's 
wand, he waves back to their native nothingness the 
chimeras of an arrogant and impious philosophy. 

But I have spoken long enough, perhaps too long. 
I have shown you, as I trust, that the general tenor of 
the New Testament, and numberless express declara- 
tions of our Saviour and his apostles, oblige us to regard 
him, though second only to the Father, as holding with 
reference to the Father, a derived existence and a 
subordinate rank. I have heaped up an amount of 
testimony, which much more than convinces me, — 
which leaves my own mind, I can truly say, without 
the shadow of a doubt, — with a conviction, which has 
no room to grow stronger. I have also, I think, 
selected all the really strong and difficult texts alleged 
in proof of the opposite doctrine. Some of them, I 
confess, would have weight, were they not overborne 
by such an overwhelming amount of testimony on the 
other side. But not one of them requires, and some 



82 



JESUS CHRIST. 



of them do not in my view admit, the interpretation, 
which favors the supreme divinity of Christ. 

I now commend the subject to your own serious 
reflection and study. But, while you seek and prize 
just ideas of your Saviour's rank and character, re- 
member that your truest knowledge of him, is heart- 
knowledge, — that knowledge, which you can have only 
by being like him, — by following him, — by having 
' Christ in you, the hope of glory.' 



LECTURE III. 



JESUS CHRIST. 

MATTHEW XXII. 42. 

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

My two previous lectures have been devoted to the 
defence of the divine unity, in opposition to the un- 
scriptural doctrines of the Trinity, and the supreme 
deity of Christ. The present lecture will be devoted 
to the explanation of my own views of the nature 
AND CHARACTER OF Christ, with this reservation, 
that I shall omit all considerations bearing directly 
upon the atonement^ which I shall make the subject of 
two distinct lectures at the close of the course. 

In the first place, I pretend not that the difference 
betw^een our Trinitarian brethren and ourselves, as to 
the person of our Saviour, is a slight one. I regard it 
indeed as not fundamental ; for we all ahke look to 
God as the author of our pardon and our eternal life, 
— they supposing that God brought these blessings 
into the world in his own person, — we, that he bestowed 
them through the hand of a Mediator. But, however 
high the personal rank which we assign to our Saviour, 



84 



JESUS CHRIST. 



there is an infinite distance between God and the 
loftiest of created and finite beings ; and our Saviour, 
if created and finite, was a son of God, and a brother 
of man, — titles, which he assumes, and uses freely with 
regard to himself, but which he could not have em- 
ployed, had he been the supreme God. 

But while I deny the personal deity of Christ, I 
most firmly believe in his divinity^ — in a divinity, 
created by a constant and full indwelHng and inworking 
of the Father in the Son. He was, in the highest 
possible degree, the sanctified, the empowered, the 
sent, the vicegerent, the representative of God. 

The Scriptures place him before us under two 
leading aspects, (which resolve themselves into one,) 
as the perfect image of God^ and the perfect pattern of 
human virtue. 

Firsts as the perfect image of God. This is indi- 
cated in many passages of Scripture, as, for instance, 
in the following : ' Being the brightness of God's glory, 
and the express image of his person.' ^ In him dwell- 
eth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' f ' He that 
hath seen me, hath seen the Father.' J ' The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' § In the intro- 
duction of St. John's gospel, from which this last text 
is quoted, we have, it seems to me, the whole theory 
of our Saviour's relation to God. There we are told, 
that the Word, the divine Reason or Wisdom, — the 
same divine attributes, which had been manifested in 
creation and in the whole course of providence, — 



* Hebrews i. 3. 
t John xiv. 9. 



t Colossians ii. 9. 
§ John i. 14. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



85 



assumed a human form, and dwelt among men in the 
person of Jesus of Nazareth. We are also told in the 
same connection, why this manifestation of the Deity 
took place. ' God was in the world, and the world 
was made by him, and the world knew him not.' His 
power and his love were enshrined in all the forms, and 
uttered themselves in all the voices of outward nature, 
— the heavens and the earth were full of them ; but 
they were diffused over too wide a surface, for man 
anywhere to take in a clear and satisfying view of them. 
Man saw the rays of divinity ; but could not trace them 
to their source. The attributes of God were in the 
universe, as we may suppose light to have been before 
the sun was made, spread everywhere, but concentrated 
nowhere. But, as God placed in the centre of our 
system a vast urn, to which men should look as the 
prime source of light, and brought together there, and 
caused to stream from thence, the rays, which before 
had mingled, and crossed each other from every point 
of the horizon, — so, in the moral firmament, did he 
kindle Jesus as the sun of righteousness, and combined 
and concentrated in his person rays of divinity, which, 
though shed all over creation, had never been brought 
together on earth before. We see in Jesus as much 
of God as can be made manifest in a created being, — 
the fulness of the Godhead in the flesh, — the outermost 
limit of the finite, — the nearest approach to the infinite. 

But here there is an obvious distinction to be made 
between God's physical and his moral attributes. By 
the physical^ we denote power and wisdom^ to which 
alone the word infinite can be applied with precision. 
8 



86 



JESUS CHRIST. 



These, of course, cannot belong in their entire fulness 
to any subordinate being ; for, if any being possessed 
them, the possession of them would make him God. 
Our Saviour expressly disclaims them, when he says, 
' I can of mine own self do nothing,' and when he 
speaks of himself as ignorant of the day and hour, 
which the Father knew. The highest possible powder 
and wisdom of a created being must needs be finite, 
and must therefore fall infinitely short of those attri- 
butes as they exist in God. Yet of these attributes, 
of the divine omnipotence and omniscience, our 
Saviour bore the express image. He wrought the 
works, and uttered the words of God. He took the 
things of God, and shewed them to men. His mira- 
cles manifested divine power in every department of 
nature. The sea obeyed him ; and the winds were 
still at his voice. Water blushed to wine ; and bread 
in the desert grew beneath his touch. He poured light 
upon the sightless balls, and the tide of health through 
the palsied limbs. The lame leaped in gladness before 
him ; and the dumb broke forth in hosannas to the Son 
of David. He raised the dying from the death-bed, — - 
the dead from the bier and the tomb. He thus laid 
bare the arm of omnipotence, — revealed the hidings of 
divine power, — wrought, without any intermediate agen- 
cy, such works as, through second causes, through the 
common processes of nature, are wrought at all times 
by the Almighty. By these marvellous works, Christ 
represents to our hearts, and brings home to our faith, 
the divine omnipotence. His miracles gave us a con- 
sciousness of repose on an Almighty arm. When we 



JESUS CHRIST. 



contemplate what he wrought, we feel more than ever 
that the universe is not its own, but our Father's, — 
that its giant forces are balanced and governed by him, 
who numbers the very hairs of our heads. These 
mighty works rebuke our despondency, and give us a 
calm trust in that Providence, which does all things 
well. 

Christ also comes to us as the image of the divine 
omniscience. He brings to us, from the infinite treasury 
of wisdom and knowledge, all that we need to know. 
He gives us assurance under the seal of God, wherever 
we might remain in doubt. He speaks with author- 
ity, — declares to us what he has seen with God, — brings 
us revelations from the bosom of the Father. His 
teachings are not inferences from trains of argument ; 
but portions of absolute, eternal truth, — transcripts from 
the infinite mind. 

With regard to the moral attributes of God, his jus- 
tice^ holiness^ and love^ perfection^ not infinity, is the 
word, which characterizes them ; and, in these attri- 
butes, a finite being may be perfect even as God is per- 
fect ; that is, may, in his entire sphere of knowledge, 
power, and duty, manifest, without deviating from them, 
the same attributes, which God manifests throughout 
the universe, — may be, in his Hmited range and capac- 
ity, no less good, just, and holy, than God is. But we 
are acquainted with no perfect child of God, except 
our Saviour. Of him alone is the testimony borne : 
' He did no sin.' He ' is hoJy, harmless, undefiled.' 
He ' was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin.' He alone, of all that have dwelt upon 



88 



JESUS CHRIST. 



earth, could say with literal and unexaggerated truth. 
' Father, I have finished the work which thou gavest me 
to do.' We feel, as we read the gospel, that we are 
communing with spotless and divine perfection. We 
see there a virtue, beyond which no dreams of perfec- 
tion can reach, — a transparent purity, in which the 
carping infidel can detect no shadow of dimness, — a 
love unlimited and inexhaustible. And, when we hear 
him say, ' He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,^ 
w^e rejoice to know that the amiable and inviting traits, 
which temper the majesty of the Saviour's character, 
belong to the Father that sent him. When we view 
the Father through the Son, we ascribe to him with 
confidence all the most tender and attractive forms of 
love, with which we are conversant, such as meekness 
and forbearance, pity and compassion, tender watch- 
fulness and care over the minutest objects and concerns. 
The life of Jesus, considered as the image of God, 
gives a new and heart-reaching emphasis to the declara- 
tions of holy writ : ' As a father pitieth his children, so 
the Lord pitieth them that fear him ; for he knt)weth our 
frame ; he remembereth that we are dust — ' A father 
of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in 
his holy habitation ;' — ' He provideth for the raven his 
food, — his young cry unto God.' 

There is nothing mystical in the aspect of our 
Saviour's character, which I have now presented. It 
only supposes that, which takes place partially in every 
good man, to have taken place in Jesus to an unlimited 
and perfect degree. God manifests himself in every 
wise and holy man. Whenever we do God's will, he 



JESUS CHRIST. 



89 



dwells and works in us. But that spirit, w^hich in us is 
shed abroad so imperfectly, and is so often quenched by- 
doubt, folly, and sin, was on Jesus shed without mea- 
sure, pervaded every faculty of his soul, prompted his 
every word and deed, in fine, constituted his only prin- 
ciple of life and of energy. Indeed, all moral goodness 
is the same in kind, — it differs only in degree. 

This leads me next to speak of Jesus as the perfect 
pattern for man in all the duties of a creature and a fel- 
low-creature, — of a child and a brother. He bears the 
divine image, that we may bear it also, — that we, 
beholding with open countenance the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus, may be changed into the same 
image, — that, in St. Peter's language, we may ' be par- 
takers of the divine nature,' and, in St. Paul's, may 
' be followers of God as dear children.' Through the 
imitation of Jesus, is one and the same moral image to 
be reflected by all true children of God. They are to 
purify themselves as he is pure. When he shall 
appear, they are to be like him ; and thus, in every dis- 
ciple, are the words of his prayer to be fulfilled : ' The 
glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that 
they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and 
thou in me.' 

I have thus presented our Saviour under the two 
prominent aspects, in which, it seems to me, the Scrip- 
tures present him, as God's image and man's exemplar. 
In these aspects, I am accustomed to think of him as 
abiding still and forever, to his disciples. As on earth, 
so now in heaven, do the ransomed hosts behold him as 
' the brightness of the Father's glory ;' and there, as 
8# 



90 JESUS CHRIST. 

here, is it their privilege to ' follow the Lamb whitherso- 
ever he goeth.^ The New Testament always speaks of 
the hfe of the redeemed in heaven, as in close personal 
connection wuth Jesus. He appears to the dying Ste- 
phen, and receives his ascending spirit. St. Paul 
speaks of his 'desire to depart, and to be with Christ.' 
St. John says of those, ' which came out of great trib- 
ulation,' that ' the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
fountains of waters.' Finite spirits, even through a 
boundless eternity, can never, ' by searching find out 
the Almighty unto perfection ;' and the idea seems to 
me consonant with both reason and Scripture, and meets 
with a grateful response from the heart that truly loves 
Jesus, that he will through eternity be our guide to the 
more perfect knowledge of God, and our forerunner in 
every path of duty. 

Meanwhile, our Saviour is represented as standing 
in the most intimate relation to his. disciples yet on 
earth. His promise is : ' Where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst 
of them ; '* — ' Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world, 'f God ' gave him, ' says St. 
Paul, ' to be the head over all things to the church. '| 
These and similar passages of Scripture seem to indi- 
cate, that he is invisibly present with his church, and 
wields a delegated sovereignty over God's spiritual 
kingdom upon earth, in fine, that he stands in the same 
relation to the household of faith, in which the father of 



* Matt, xviii. 20. t Malt, xxviii. 20. t Ephesians i. 22. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



91 



a family stands to his children, watching for their good, 
dispensing God's gifts to their necessities, their helper 
in every good work, the inspirer of holy thoughts, and 
of inward peace and joy. 

Jesus is also spoken of as our intercessor with the 
Father. Says the writer to the Hebrews : ' He is able 
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by 
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for 
them.'* 'If any man sin,' says St. John, 'we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
eous.'! This intercession of Christ we regard with 
unfeigned and devout gratitude, not that we suppose it 
needed to render God propitious, but because it pre- 
sents so vivid and touching an image of the Saviour's 
love for man. 

Jesus is also spoken of as man's final judge ; and 
the tribunal, before which we must all appear, is de- 
signated as 'the judgment-seat of Christ. 'J 'The 
Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son. 

The hour is coming, in the which all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resur- 
rection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation. '§ This idea naturally con- 
nects itself with that of the intimate relation of Jesus 
to his church on earth, and to the assembly of the 
redeemed in heaven. The soul passes from the 
agony of death into his presence ; and that very in- 
terview is in itself a judgment and a sentence. The 



* Hebrews vii. 25. 
t 2 Corinthians v. 10. 



t 1 John ii. 1. 

§ John V. 22j 28, 29. 



92 



JESUS CHRIST. 



soul, that is of his lineage and kindred, sees its own 
cherished traits of character reflected from his coun- 
tenance, and reads in his eye the invitation, ' Come, 
thou blessed of my Father.' On the other hand, the 
impenitent, the willingly guilty, from a countenance 
with which they have no sympathy, from a glance 
which reflects not theirs, receive the sad mandate, 
' Depart, ye cursed.' Like or unlike him^ is the great 
question of the final judgment. This question, the 
ranks of spirits, as they go from earth to the Saviour's 
immediate presence, answ^er ; and, as they answer it, 
join his heavenly flock, or go away into the company 
of outcast and rebel spirits. 

I would next refer to the idea entertained by many, 
that our Saviour was God's agent in the creation of the 
visible universe. Of this I find no scriptural proof. 
Indeed, the passages commonly quoted in support of 
thi s opinion, appear to me to have reference to some- 
thing more precious and more enduring than the ma- 
terial universe, — to God's spiritual creation and king- 
dom. The idea under discussion rests mainly on two 
passages. One is in the epistle to the Hebrews : 
'By whom also he made the worlds.'^ The word 
here rendered worlds^ has for its primary meaning 
ages or dispensations. It is the word rendered ages in 
the following passage : ' The mystery which hath 
been hid from ages^ and from generations.'! I suppose 
that, in the passage under consideration, it means 
ogesy namely, the successive ages of the church, or 



* Hebrews i. 2. 



t Colossians i. 26. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



93 



the different religious dispensations, patriarchal, Leviti- 
cal and prophetical, which had preceded the advent 
of Christ. This exposition gives a peculiar force and 
beauty to the opening verses of the epistle to the 
Hebrews. ' God, who, at sundry times and in divers 
manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath 
in these latter days spoken unto us through his Son, 
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, on whose 
account he indeed made or arranged the earlier dispen- 
sations just referred to, making them all point onward 
to him, in all of them foreshadowing his coming and 
preparing the way.' 

The other passage, in which it has been held that 
Christ is distinctly set forth as the Creator of the uni- 
verse, is this : ' For by, or through him were all things 
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible 
and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, 
or principalities, or powers, all things were created by 
him and for him ; and he is before them all, and they 
are all bound together through him.'^ This passage I 
understand as assigning to our Saviour much loftier 
functions, than the creation of a perishing universe. 
The all things referred to are the thrones^ principali' 
ties^ and powers^ the ranks and distinctions in the 
spiritual universe, whether seen or unseen, whether 
apostles, pastors, and teachers, among dying men, or 
those, who occupy high places, nearest the throne, 
first in song, among the hosts of heaven. Their digni- 
ties, their thrones, and powers, are his creation, his 



* Colossians i. 16, 17. 



94 



JESUS CHRIST. 



gift. He ordains shepherds after his own heart on 
earth. He assigns to each his place, his sphere, in 
heaven. He is before them all, their prince, their 
head ; and through him are they all bound together as 
one, — through him are they all, in heaven and on 
earth, made one family. With this exposition the verse 
next following fitly harmonizes. ' And he is the head 
of the body, the church.' This place, as prince and 
head of God's spiritual kingdom, the Scriptures with 
one voice concede to him ; and we gratefully reecho 
the ascription of those in heaven, who cry, ' Worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing.' 

We arrive now at the important inquiry, — who, as 
to his person, was this wonderful being, in whom God 
thus enshrined and manifested himself, and who is now 
raised to the head of the spiritual universe ? With 
regard to the person of Jesus, Unitarians are divided 
in sentiment. They are often accused of representing 
him as a mere man ; but falsely. Those, who bear the 
name of Humanitarians, do not believe him to have 
been a man like other men ; for, if he had no separate 
existence before his birth in Bethlehem, still the mirac- 
ulous circumstances attending his birth, his intimate 
connection with the Deity, his vast endowments, his 
exalted mission, raised him far above all others, who 
have ever borne the human form. His apostles cannot 
at any time have regarded him as a mere man. They 
knew of his miraculous birth, of the vision of angels to 
the shepherds, of his preternatural wisdom in childhood. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



95 



and of the voice from heaven at his baptism. They 
evidently never supposed him the supreme God. They 
always looked upon him as a fellow creature ; but yet 
they manifestly regarded him as a superior being, and 
as one, of whom they could not have been surprised 
to learn, that he had existed before he came into this 
world. 

Believing, as I do, in our Saviour's preexistence, I 
now ask your attention to some of the leading scriptural 
proofs, upon which this doctrine rests. I will first 
quote these words of our Saviour : ' No man hath 
ascended up to heaven, but he that came doivn from 
heaven,''^ Is it said, that coming down from heaven^ 
simply implies a divine commission ? Why then did 
not John the Baptist, who certainly had a commission 
no less from God than that of Jesus, speak of himself 
as coming down from heaven ? But he, in this same 
chapter, expressly speaks of Christ as coming from 
heaven, in a sense in which he himself did not come from 
heaven, and of himself as being of the earth, in a sense 
in which Christ was not of the earth. ' He must 
increase,' says the Baptist, ' but I must decrease. He 
that cometh from above is above all : he that is of the 
earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth : he that 
cometh from heaven is above all.' 

Again, Jesus says of himself, ' What and if ye shall 
see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? 'f 
When he uttered these words, he had just before called 
himself ' the bread which came down from heaven,' by 



* John iii. 13. 



t John vi. 62. 



96 



JESUS CHRIST. 



which his Jewish hearers had understood him as assert- 
ing his preexistence ; for they immediately said among 
themselves : ' Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, 
whose father and mother we know ? How is it then 
that he saith, I came down from heaven ? ' It is in the 
conversation induced by these cavils, that Jesus asks, 
' What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up 
where he was before ? ' 

I next cite the words of Jesus, ' Before Mraham 
was^ I am.'* ^ Those, who deny our Saviour's pre- 
existence, regard these words as elliptical, and supply 
a second nominative after the verb am,—' Before 
Abraham was, I am ' Ae, — I am the Christ, the Mes- 
siah, that is, I was marked out by a divine decree for 
the ofBce of the Messiah, long before Abraham's birth. 
That, in several instances in the New Testament, he 
must necessarily be supplied after / am, in order to 
complete the sentence, I freely admit. But in every 
one of these cases, (unless this constitute an exception,) 
the Son of man^ or the Christy or some synonymous 
word, or phrase, can be supplied from what immediately 
precedes. There is such an instance in this same chapter. 
' When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall 
ye know that I am,' the he being necessarily supplied 
to complete the sentence, and referring to the Son of 
man, (a title of the Messiah doubtless well known 
among the Jews,) immediately preceding. But in the 
text under discussion, if we supply the pronoun Ac, 
there is nothing which precedes, to which the pronoun 



* John viii. 58. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



97 



can refer, no name or title of Jesus having been em- 
ployed for more than twenty of the next preceding 
verses. I feel fully convinced, therefore, that there is 
no competent critical ground for translating this sentence, 
' Before Abraham was, I am Ae.' But, even were w^e 
to deem this translation admissible on critical grounds, 
it makes our Saviour's words utterly unmeaning ; and 
they might have been used by any other person, as well 
as by him. Peter, having existed from all eternity in 
the foreknowledge and determination of God, might 
have said, ' Before Abraham was, I am Peter,' with 
just as much truth and significance, as Jesus could 
have said, ' Before Abraham was, I am the Christ.' 
Moreover, these words of Jesus are in answ^er to the 
question: ' Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast 
thou seen Abraham?' The answer ought, according 
to every reasonable principle of interpretation, to be 
understood as having some bearing upon the question. 

I next quote the following, from our Saviour's prayer 
with his disciples : ' And now, O Father, glorify thou 
me with thine own self, loitli the glory lohich I had 
with thee before the world loas.'^ And again, ' Thou 
lovedst me before the foundation of the world, ^ It 
requires bold and rash criticism to make this gloi^y 
before the world ivas^ a glory in the depths of divine 
counsels ; and are we not borrowing from the scholastic 
absurdities of the middle ages, when we speak of God's 
love in anticipation for a nonexistent being, — of his 
love before the foundation of the world for a being, who 



* John xvii. 5, 24. 

9 



98 



JESUS CHRIST. 



was not to see the light of life, till the world was four 
thousand years old ? I know not how to evade the 
conclusion, that these passages denote our Saviour's 
preexistence. 

I will now adduce one or two passages from St. 
Paul. In his discourse on the resurrection, speaking 
of Christ, he says, ' The second man is the Lord from 
heaven,'^ ^ Here the whole argument is based on the 
heavenly origin and the superhuman character of 
Jesus. 

St. Paul again says : ' Ye know the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich^ yet for 
your sakes he became poor^ that ye through his poverty 
might be rich.' The most obvious, and, to my mind, 
the only satisfying sense of these words is, that Jesus, 
for man's salvation, passed from a richer into a poorer, 
from a more lofty into a more humble condition. 

These are some of the leading texts, which support 
the doctrine of our Saviour's preexistence. There is 
something also in the general turn of the New Testa- 
ment phraseology, with reference to him, for which I 
cannot account on any other ground. I refer to the 
numerous passages, in which his advent is spoken of. 
Most of them, literally interpreted, would imply either 
his own antecedent personal agency, in connection with 
his advent, or, at least, his changing one state of being 
for another, rather than his beginning to exist. Such 
a passage is the following : ' He made himself of no 
reputation, (literally, emptied himself^ as if of what he 



* 1 Corinthians xv. 47. 



JESUS CHCIST. 



99 



had previously possessed or enjoyed,) and took upon 
him the hkeness of men ; and being found in fashion as 
a man, he humbled himself.'^ To this class of texts, 
belongs also the following, from the epistle to the 
Galatians : ' When the fulness of the time was come, 
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.' f 

Some of the titles most usually given to our Saviour, 
seem to designate a personal rank superior to that of 
man, and according well with the idea of his preexis- 
tence. The title. Son of God^ implies, indeed, a 
created and subordinate being ; and all men are, and 
are called, sons of - God. But yet, it seems to be 
applied to our Saviour in a peculiar and exclusive 
sense, often wdth the distinguishing epithets only and 
only-begotten, 

I might quote many other passages and considerations 
in confirmation of our Saviour's preexistence. I find 
raany indubitable traces of it, (particularly in the gospel 
of John^) which gain distinctness, the more closely I 
view them, and the more searchingly I apply to them 
the canons of sound criticism. 

Were there but two or three passages, which seemed 
to teach this doctrine, and were it opposed to the. 
general tenor of the New Testament, I should feel 
bound to interpret these few passages in accordance 
with the analogy of other Scriptures. But the passages 
are too various and too numerous to be regarded as 
merely figurative ; and the doctrine, which they imply, 
in no wise mihtates against the language or the spirit of 



* Philippians ii. 7, 8. 



t Galatians iv. 4. 



100 



JESUS CHRIST. 



the New Testament in general. Indeed, there are 
considerations, which seem to render our Saviour's 
preexistence intrinsically probable. The mission which 
he filled, was the loftiest that a created being could 
discharge ; and it would seem reasonable, and natural, 
that, for so high a function, God should have ordained 
one of the elder, and more exalted members of his 
spiritual family, rather than one from the human race, 
— the youngest and humblest branch of that family. 

Let me now notice briefly the principal objections 
urged against this doctrine. 

In the first place, it is urged that Christ is not unfre- 
quently styled a man^ in the New Testament. We 
answer, that he was ' found in fashion as a man,' passed 
through the vicissitudes of man's life, bore many of 
man's trials and infirmities, in fine, was, (whatever 
theory we adopt,) a man in very many of his circum- 
stances and relations. Moreover, the analogy of Scrip- 
ture gives us abundant reason to believe, that, with his 
preexistence distinctly in view, the sacred writers would 
have frequently called him a man^ when they contem- 
plated him in his human aspects, relations, and fortunes. 
There are numerous instances, both in the Old and 
New Testament, in which superhuman beings are called 
men* Thus, in Genesis, we read of Abraham : ' The 
Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre : and 
he sat in the tent-door in the heat of the day ; and he 
lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood 
by him.'^ In the next chapter, we are told of two of 



Genesis xviii. 1, 2. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



101 



these men : ' There came two angels to Sodom,' and 
shortly after, of the same two, ' The men put forth 
their hand.' When the birth of Samson is announced, 
we first read that ' the angel of the Lord appeared 
unto the woman,' — then, that ' the woman came and 
told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto 
me,' — and lastly, that ' the angel of the Lord, (that is, 
the man of God just spoken of,) ascended in the flame 
of the altar. '^ Luke, in describing our Lord's resurrec- 
tion, says that ^ two men stood by the women in shining 
garments,'! which men John calls ^ two angels in 
white.' These examples will suffice to show, that, in 
reasoning upon the nature of Christ, no stress can be 
laid on the mere use of the word man. 

It is also objected to the doctrine of our Saviour's 
preexistence, that it deprives his example of its appro- 
priateness and value. By no means, I reply. All 
God's spiritual children are of the same family. Man 
is distinguished from other branches of the same family, 
less by nature, than by circumstances merely local and 
temporary. The duties incumbent on all created 
spirits, are the same, namely, love and obedience to 
the great Father spirit, love and charity to all fellow- 
spirits. The particular mode, in which these duties 
are to be discharged, depends upon the circumstances, 
in which each individual spirit is placed ; and, were the 
greatest of created spirits to be clothed with a human 
body, and to pass through an earthly life, his duties 
would be strictly human duties, — his conduct in any 



* Judges xiii. 3, 6, 20. 

9# 



t Luke xxiv. 4. 



102 



JESUS CHRIST. 



given situation, would be precisely what that of a com- 
mon man, in the same situation, ought to be. What- 
ever, then, we may believe with regard to the nature 
of Christ, if he was ' found in fashion as a man,' his 
conduct, in all human relations, must have been precisely 
what man's ought to be, and must, therefore, be a fit 
example for our literal imitation. Nor let it be said, 
that, as superhuman, he was necessarily sinless ; that 
he could not have felt the power of temptation ; and 
that his victory over sin, therefore, affords us no en- 
couragement. If he was a finite spirit, and a free agent, 
he must have been a subject of temptation, and capable 
of sin ; and, though the miserable baits of earthly 
pleasure and ambition might have offered but little 
allurement to a heaven-born spirit, yet, in his super- 
human endowments, and in his vastly expanded relations, 
and sphere of action, he might have found as strong 
temptations, as we do in the mere objects of sense, 
and might have won as arduous moral victories, as we 
should win, were we to lead an entirely stainless life 
from the cradle to the grave. 

There is one thought, which, to my own mind, attaches 
a peculiar worth to our Saviour's example, on the 
ground of his preexistence. I have said that all spirits 
are of one family. Outward circumstances alone, form 
the dividing line between good men and angels. ' In 
the resurrection, they are as the angels of God in 
heaven.' We are made for endless growth. In this life, 
' it does not yet appear what we shall be ; ' but, unknown 
ages hence, we may look down upon the present spirit- 
ual attainments of an archangel, as we should look up 



JESUS CHRIST. 



103 



to them now. We here are training ourselves in the 
school of Christ for familiar communion with the 
thrones, principalities, and powers of heaven. Does it 
not then commend itself to us as worthy of the infinite 
wisdom of our Father, that he should fit us for this 
blessed society, through the agency of one of these 
elder and purer spirits, whose exalted perfections may 
inspire us with an enthusiastic zeal as we seek to be his 
followers, while, looking to him as a brother, as one 
bound by the same ties, called to the same duties with 
ourselves, we may imitate him without despondency 
or discouragement ? 

Such are the views of our Saviour's person and 
character, which seem to me most consonant with the 
word of God. They commend themselves to my mind 
as equally removed from objectionable extremes. On 
the one hand, they bring the Saviour within the range 
of our sympathy, and save us from the inextricable 
confusion of ideas inseparable from the doctrine of the 
Trinity ; and, on the other hand, they preserve unim- 
paired the matchless wisdom, the spotless purity, the 
divine authority of Jesus, and present him as a being, 
on whom we can look with mingled reverence and love, 

— whom we can welcome to our hearts as a brother, 
while we must bow before him as from a higher sphere, 

— who, at once, guides us in the duties of our mortal 
pilgrimage, and makes us, as partakers of his glory, 
peers of angels, and citizens of heaven. 

While my reason and my heart are satisfied with 
these views, they constitute the only ground, on which 
1 can make the voice of Scripture harmonize. The 
Trinitarian theory does great violence to the laws of 



104 



JESUS CHRIST. 



interpretation, and brings the various testimonies of the 
divine word into harsh and irreconcilable conflict with 
each other. The Humanitarian expositions of Scripture, 
T dare not trust. They are lax. They seem to me to 
wrest the Scriptures. Though they have the advantage 
of being urged in behalf of a doctrine, not absurd, but 
in itself altogether tenable, in a critical point of view 
they seem to me hardly less objectionable, than the 
Trinitarian expositions do. The views, which I have 
now presented, do no violence, as I think, to the prin- 
ciples of sound criticism. I can go with them through 
the whole of the New Testament, and find not a text, 
which gives me any serious difficulty. They suffer me 
to interpret the Scriptures in their literal and obvious 
sense, which neither of the other theories will. On this 
account, as one, who feels inadequate to settle these 
points without the authority of express revelation, and 
who receives the Scriptures as given by inspiration of 
God, I prize and cherish these views ; and should be 
glad to know, that my statements and arguments have 
produced in your minds the same conviction, that 
exists in my own. 

I close with a single reflection. If this exalted being 
entered our world, assumed its burdens and its sorrows, 
and passed through its gates of death, of what mo- 
mentous interest and importance must be the service, 
which he came to render, — of what unspeakable worth, 
the salvation which he brings and offers ! If, under 
a darker and less perfect dispensation, ' every trans- 
gression and disobedience received a just recompense 
of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great 
salvation ? ' 



LECTURE IV. 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



LUKE XI. 13. 

IF YE THEN, BEING EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS UNTO YOUR 
CHILDREN, HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER 
GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM 1 



The holy spirit is my subject this evening. I 
will commence my lecture by a word of explanation, 
which will be necessary for but few, yet which some 
may need. We sometimes read in the New" Testa- 
ment of the holy spirit^ and full as often of the holy 
ghost. The original word is the same in one case, as 
in the other ; but, at the time when the Bible was 
translated, ghost and spirit meant the same thing, 
and were used indifferently to express the same idea. 
Since that time the word ghost has become so re- 
stricted in signification, as to denote only a spectral 
apparition ; while spirit means the same now that it 
did then. 

The controversy with regard to the holy spirit is, 
not as to its reality, or its divinity, but as to its person- 
ality. No Christian denies that there is a holy spirit, 
or niaintains the holy spirit to be an inferior and subor- 



106 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



dinate person. But the Trinitarian maintains, that the 
holy spirit is a distinct and equal person of the Godhead. 
We, on the other hand, beheve that the holy spirit is but 
a name, and a most appropriate name, for divine influ- 
ences and operations, and, especially, for the influence 
of God upon the soul of man. In the present lecture, 
I shall first give you my reasons for not embracing the 
Trinitarian view of the holy spirit, and then shall ex- 
pound and illustrate my own view of the nature and 
influences of the holy spirit. 

I could name with great sincerity, as my first and 
sufficient reason for not embracing the Trinitarian doc- 
trine on this subject, that 1 see not the shadow of an 
argument in support of it. I confess, that, while I 
cherish no disrespect for minds so constituted as to 
perceive the force of the arguments employed in 
defence of this doctrine, I myself am unable to appre- 
ciate them, and should hardly know how to refute them 
better than by a simple statement of them. 

But, in pursuance of the plan marked out for these 
lectures, I shall go over the whole ground of the argu- 
ment on both sides, as thoroughly as I can in a single 
discourse. 

At the outset, in the way of regarding the holy spirit 
as a separate and independent person of the Godhead, 
there stand several scores of passages in the New Tes- 
tament, in which the holy spirit is spoken of as subject 
to, or conferred by God and Christ. Such passages 
are the following: will put my spirit upon him.'^ 



* Matthew xii. 18. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



107 



' How mnch more shall your heavenly Father give the 
holy spirit?'^ ^ God giveth not the spirit by measure 
unto him.'f ' God, who hath also given unto us his 
holy spirit. 'J ' The holy ghost sent down from heaven. '§ 
' The Comforter, whom I will send unto you from the 
Father, even the spirit of truth. '|| Who can send or 
give the supreme and eternal God? The very idea is 
unspeakably absurd. 

I am aware of the usual mode of accounting for 
phraseology of the kind just quoted. It is maintained 
that the three equal persons of the Trinity entered into 
a covenant, by which the Son agreed to be subject to 
the Father, and the Holy Spirit to move at the bidding 
of the Father and the Son. But this covenant is not 
mentioned in the Bible. Moreover, it is a covenant of 
falsehood, — a covenant, by which the Son and the 
Holy Spirit agree to act a lie, — to represent a state 
of things, which has no actual existence, — to play an 
assumed part. But, were we to admit this incongruous 
idea, (which I know not how to entertain for a moment,) 
of a covenant between the three persons of the God- 
head, I still should maintain, that, whatever reason 
existed for the assumed inferiority of the second and 
third persons, the same reason must needs exist for our 
receiving and regarding them in the characters, which 
they have assumed. It is far more reverent and pious, 
to receive them as they are offered to us in the gospel, 
than to insist on rending off the disguise which they have 
chosen to wear, rescinding the covenant which they have 



*.Luke xi. 13. 
§1 Peter i. 12, 



t John iii. 34. 
il John XV. 26. 



1 1 Thess. iv. 8. 



108 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



sealed, and regarding them in a light, in which they have 
agreed not to be regarded. 

Again, were the holy spirit a person, especially, a 
person of the Godhead, we should at least expect to 
find him designated by the use of a mascuhne noun, 
and masculine pronouns. We should hardly expect to 
find a divine person generally designated by a noun in 
the neuter gender, with articles, pronouns, adjectives, 
and participles in the neuter, (for, in the Greek, all these 
parts of speech are distinguished by gender.) Yet the 
Greek word rendered spirit or ghost is neuter, and 
is invariably connected with neuter articles, pronouns, 
adjectives, and participles. There is not an instance, 
in which, in the Greek of the New Testament, a pro- 
noun corresponding to our word /le, his^ or him^ is used 
in connection with the holy spirit ; but always a pronoun 
corresponding to it or its. Now, in the Greek lan- 
guage, the only cases, in which living beings are denoted 
by neuter nouns and pronouns, are those of certain 
diminutives, the smallness of which is expressed by the 
use of this gender, — - an idiom like that, by which we, 
though in bad taste, call a very little child instead of 
he or she. Is there then the slightest probability that the 
sacred writers should have employed the neuter gender 
to denote a person of the most exalted dignity, — a 
person of the Godhead ? 

But the holy spirit is, four times in the gospel of 
John, called the comforter or advocate^ and in connec- 
tion with this term, are employed words in the mascu- 
line gender ; and, it is asked, must not that, which is 
called by a word so manifestly the name of a person. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



109 



be a real person, and not a mere influence ? I reply, 
that, either the word spirit^ and the neuter words used 
with it, are employed figuratively, or the word comforter 
is so employed. Now which is the most probable, — 
that this divine person should be spoken of literally in 
the New Testament but four times, and figuratively 
several hundreds of times, and that too in a figure, 
which diminishes, instead of amplifying his dignity ; 
or, that a divine influence, which is spoken of literally 
several hundreds of times, should four times be per- 
sonified ? We must, in answering this question, bear 
it in mind, that the personifying of things without hfe, 
whether outward objects, or conceptions of the intellect, 
is an exceedingly common figure of speech, and one 
which always gives dignity to the things personified ; 
while the opposite figure, namely, the use with regard to 
a person of language applicable to an inanimate object, 
is exceedingly rare, and is seldom employed, except in 
derision or irony, or to indicate the exceeding littleness 
of the person spoken of. 

To show the true value of the argument for the 
personality of the holy spirit, based on the use of the 
word comforter^ let us suppose a parallel case. Sup- 
pose that a volume of American sermons were put into 
the hands of a heathen, who understood our language, 
yet did not know the import of the word Bible. 
He would, it is to be hoped, often meet with that 
word, perhaps several times in each sermon. He 
would find it always treated as a neuter noun, and 
would see its place supplied by it and which, not by he 
^uA who. For the most part, there would be nothing 
10 



110 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



said about the Bible, which was not literally applicable 
to a book. But in an exhortation towards the close of 
one of the sermons, something would perhaps be said 
about the duty of taking the Bible for a guide; and 
we will suppose the word guide used with regard to the 
Bible /ow times in this one passage. Now, were the 
heathen reader to insist that the Bible was a person, 
because in this volume of sermons it was four times 
called a guide^ he would reason precisely like those, 
who infer the personality of the holy spirit from the 
use of the word comforter concerning it, four times in 
a single discourse of our Saviour. 

Again, any possible inference, which might be 
drawn in behalf of this doctrine of the personality of 
the holy spirit, from the use of the word comforter^ is 
entirely precluded by the fact, that in each of the four 
instances,* in which this word is used, it is defined by 
the neuter noun spijit^ with a variety of words in the 
neuter gender connected with it. The first instance 
reads thus : ' I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another comforter, that he may abide with you 
forever, — even the spirit of truth, which the world 
cannot receive, because it seeth it not, neither know- 
ethi^ ; but ye know 17; for it dweWeih with you, and 
shall be in you.' Every one of these pronouns in the 
original is in the neuter gender. The next instance 
reads thus : ' The comforter, that is, the holy spirit^ 
ivhich the Father will send in my name,' the relative in 
the Greek being neuter. The next is this : ' When 



* John xiv. J6, 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 7. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



Ill 



the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from 
the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth 
from the Father.' In the fourth instance also, the com- 
forter is defined to be the spirit of truth. 

I would next remind you of other forms of speech 
in the New Testament, entirely incompatible with the 
personality of the holy spirit. The holy spirit is re- 
peatedly said to be poured out^ shed^ quenched^ and the 
like, and Christians are said to be anointed with the 
holy spirit, — expressions never used with regard to 
persons, but entirely applicable when used with regard 
to influences. 

Another most decisive argument against the distinct 
and personal divinity of the holy spirit, is to be found 
in the offices ascribed in the Scriptures to the Fa- 
ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, respectively. The Trin- 
itarian theory is, that there is a partition of divine 
attributes and offices between the three persons, whose 
respective functions are entirely distinct and separate 
from each other. The Father is the Creator, the Son 
the Redeemer, the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier. Now 
it might with much reason be objected to this partition, 
that the two last-named offices are one ; that sanctifica- 
tion is man's only redemption ; that sin is precisely what 
Jesus came to save men from ; and that he can do 
this only by making them holy. But we will not in- 
sist on this. We will suppose these three offices of 
creator, redeemer, and sanctifier, in themselves entirely 
distinct from each other. Now if it appears that the 
three persons of the Godhead, (so called,) discharge 
each other's alleged functions, the distinction of per- 



112 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



sons can be no longer maintained. This, I think, will 
appear ; and, in particular, we shall see that sanctifi- 
cation, deemed the special function of the Holy Spirit, 
is ascribed both to the Father and to the Son ; and, on 
the other hand, that creation and redemption, regarded 
as the prerogatives of the Father and the Son, are as- 
cribed to the Holy Spirit. 

Sanctification is ascribed to the Father. In a prayer 
addressed expressly to the Father, Jesus says : ' Sanc- 
tify them through thy truth.'* St. Paul prays : ' The 
very God of peace sanctify you wholly.' f St. Jude 
addresses his epistle ^ to them that are sanctified by 
God the Father. '$ 

Sanctification is also attributed to Jesus. Says St. 
Paul : * Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- 
cation.' § And, again : ' Christ also loved the church 
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and 
cleanse it.'|| Says the writer to the Hebrews : ' We 
are sanctified through the offering of the body of 
Christ once for all.' IT And, again : ' Jesus also, that 
he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suf- 
fered without the gate.'*^ 

To the holy spirit also, creation, the Father's al- 
leged prerogative, is ascribed, as in these passages : 
' By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens. 'ff 'The 
spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the 
Almighty hath given me Hfe.' 



* John xvii. 17. 
§ 1 Cor. i. 30. 
Heb. xiii. 12. 



t 1 Thess. V. 23. 

II Ephesians v. 25, 26. 

tt Job xxvi. 13. 



t Jude 1. 

Heb. X. 10, 11. 
tt Job xxxiii. 4. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



113 



Every stage also in Christ's work of redemption is 
ascribed to the holy spirit. He ascribes his own mira- 
cles to ' the spirit of God ; ' * and he is said to have 
' offered himself through the eternal spirit.' f 

The Scriptures then leave no ground for the dis- 
tinction of attributes and offices between the three 
persons of the Trinity, claimed by our Trinitarian 
friends ; and, in ascribing to the holy spirit the same, 
and only the same attributes and offices ascribed to 
the Father and the Son, they make the distinct per- 
sonality of the holy spirit a theory utterly without foun- 
dation. 

The texts, usually quoted in support of the person- 
ality of the holy spirit, are those, in which the holy 
spirit is spoken of as being sentj blasphemed^ tempted^ 
grieved or resisted^ all which are not unusual instances 
of personification, and represent a style of language 
constantly employed with regard to objects without 
life. Thus we say, that a shower is sent^ that divine 
mercy is blasphemed^ that one's integrity is tempted^ 
that good counsels are resisted. 

The only text, that demands distinct notice, is the 
following : ' Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infir- 
mities ; for'we know not what we should pray for as we 
ought ; but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us 
with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that 
searcheth the hearts knoweth the mind of the spirit, 
because it maketh intercession for the saints according 
to the will of God. 'J It is surprising that this text 

" * Matt. xii. 28. t Heb. ix. 14. t John viii. 26, 27. 

10=^ 



114 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



should ever have been quoted as favoring the idea of 
the supreme, independent divinity of a spirit, which 
intercedes^ that is, offers prayer, of course to some 
superior being ; nor does the idea of groaning accord 
with the serene and perfect happiness of an almighty 
being. I do not think, that the spirit of God is re- 
ferred to in this passage. It is the spirit or soul of man, 
of the Christian^ that is here spoken of. The apostle 
has alluded, in the preceding verses, to the infirmities 
of an earthly condition, which are to be borne with 
patience and hope. He adds : ' The spirit, the soul, 
also, fixed on God and on eternal things, helps our 
infirmities, — sustains our frail bodies. We indeed 
often know not what is best for us, — what we ought to 
pray for ; but the soul still prays, — pours itself out to 
God in aspirations and longings, deep and fervent, 
though often vague and indefinite. And he, that 
searches the hearts of men, knows the mind of 
the spirit, — knows the meaning of its groans and 
supplications, — knows the wants, which it does not 
know itself; for the souls of the righteous intercede 
for them according to the divine will, — long and yearn, 
in these groanings that cannot be uttered, for such 
spiritual favors, as God is always ready to bestow.' 
The idea of the passage is, that the devout soul, in 
all its infirmity and its ignorance, will still be sustained, 
for it will still press to the mercy-seat ; and that, if it 
knows not even what to ask for, and cannot shape 
its own supplications, God, knowing the rectitude 
and earnestness of its desires, will satisfy all its real 
wants. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



115 



The holy spirit is not then a distinct person. What 
is it ? What does the phrase mean ? How are we 
to account for its use ? We shall not, it seems to me, 
need to look far for our answer. Our common use of 
the word spirit will sufficiently explain its use in the 
sacred writings. What do w^e mean by the spirit of a 
man ? A man performs two kinds of w^orks, — exerts 
two kinds of agency. Some things he does expressly, 
— visibly, or audibly, — by word, or hand, or writing. 
Other, and often much greater things, he brings to pass 
by his influence, — by silent outgoings from his charac- 
ter, — by the power of his example, — by an agency, 
which far transcends his sphere of immediate action, 
and often outlasts the period of his mortal life. This 
influence, this agency, w^e usually denominate the 
spirit of the man ; and its effects, its fruits, whether in 
the character of individuals or in the state of society, 
we also designate as his spirit. For instance, w^e call 
the influence, which the efforts and example of How- 
ard the philanthropist had, and still have, the spirit 
of Howard ; and, whenever we see works like his 
wrought, or persons engaged in works like his, we say 
that the spirit of Howard is in those works, or in those 
men. We then habitually use the word spirit to de- 
signate, jfirs?, a man's influencej and, secondly^ the ef- 
fects of that influence. 

Now I conceive that we have no need of going 
beyond these common, well known uses of the word 
spirit^ to explain its use in the Scriptures with reference 
to the Almighty. We find the phrases, spirit of God, 
spirit of truths holy spirit^ and the like, constantly 



116 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



used in these senses ; and there is not a passage, as 
seems to me, in which it is necessary to look farther 
for a signification both obvious and satisfying. 

The spirit of God^ the holy spirit^ and like phrases, 
most frequently denote simply the divine influence, 
sometimes in creation, and in outward events, but, in 
the great majority of instances, on the soul of man. 
They denote indeed a great diversity of divine influ- 
ences, just as, by the spirit of a man, we denote every 
variety of influence, which a human being can exercise. 
We trace the spirit of a man in the building of a city, 
in the planning of a voyage, in the diffusion of literary 
taste, in the establishment of any public institution, in 
the tone of moral feeling cherished by his influence, in 
ideas or sentiments, to which he gave the first develop- 
ment, in fine, in any way, in which, without his direct 
bodily action, his character has impressed itself on 
objects, events, or the minds and hearts of others. 
An equally wide ground does the phrase spirit of God^ 
with its cognate phrases, cover. It is used with refer- 
ence to the plenary inspiration and the power from on 
high, which rested upon Jesus. To him, we are told, 
God ' gives not his spirit by measure ; ' but on him 
bestows every form of divine influence and endowment, 
of which a created being is capable. Then it is used 
concerning the peculiar communications of light and 
power vouchsafed to the apostles and their converts. 
Those, who were thus endowed, were always said to 
have received the holy spirit. It is used of particular 
divine intimations and impressions, as when the spirit 
bade Philip join the Ethiopian, and sent Peter to the 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



117 



house of Cornelius. Then, too, it is often used, as in 
our text, to denote those aids in the reh'gious life, which 
' whosoever asks, receives, and he that seeks, finds.' 
And it is used, in all these cases, with regard both to 
the influence and its effects, that is, it is employed to 
designate the spiritual gifts of God, both as they come 
from him, and as they rest upon the minds and hearts 
of men. 

Now it is self-evident that there is the same room 
for the use of this phraseology with reference to God, 
that there is with reference to man. There is the 
same distinction between the modes and forms of 
divine action, that there is with reference to the deeds 
and agency of man. There are some things, which 
God confers, utters, or brings to pass, visibly or audibly. 
There are other things, which he gives or brings to 
pass silently, without any interposing cause that can be 
seen or traced ; and all the various influences of this 
kind, with their results or effects, are what are termed 
in the Scriptures the holy spirit. 

But, while we find no ground in reason or Scripture 
for believing in the personality of the holy spirit, we 
regard the influence of God upon the soul of man as an 
indisputable, essential, fundamental doctrine of religion. 
What distinguishes us from our Trinitarian brethren on 
this point, is, that we regard this influence as flowing, 
not from a fragment of the divine nature, but from the 
whole undivided Deity. And least of all, can we 
sympathize with believers in the Trinity, in separating 
God the Father from the divine influence upon the 
soul. We feel that it is peculiarly in his fatherly rela- 



118 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



tion and attributes, that God is present with the soul of 
man. We find the full promise of the holy spirit in 
these words of Jesus: ' If a man love me, he will keep 
my words ; and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him, and make our abode with him.' It is 
the spirit of the Father, and the Son, and this alone, 
that we desire and seek, not a spirit in any respect or 
degree distinct from either the Father or the Son. 

Let me employ the few moments, for which I yet 
can claim your attention, in developing what I conceive 
to be the scriptural doctrine of spiritual influences. 

In the first place, the spirit of God is in his works. 
We accord in full with the declaration of the Wisdom 
of Solomon : ' Thine incorruptible spirit is in all things.' 
Well has it been said : ' This fair universe, were it in 
the meanest province thereof, is in very deed the star- 
domed city of God. Through every star, through 
every grass-blade, the glory of a present God still 
beams. Nature is the time-vesture of God.' With 
equal truth and beauty, does Goethe put into the mouth 
of the earth-spirit the words : — 

' 'Tis thus at the roaring loom of time I ply, 

And weave for God the garment thou see'st Him by.' 

Our first parents heard the voice of the Lord God in 
the garden ; and they, no doubt miraculously, but not 
one whit more distinctly than we may hear it this very 
night. There is no poetical fancy, but literal truth in 
the beautiful words of the hymn just sung : — 

' Hark ! on the evening breeze, 
As once of old, the Lord God's voice 

Is heard among the trees.' 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



119 



Such is the constant testimony of Scripture. God is 
spoken of as actively present in all the forms and 
agencies of the outward universe. Does a tempest 
rise ? ' He maketh the winds his angels.' Do the 
thunders roll ? 'The voice of the Lord is upon the 
waters ; the God of glory thundereth.' Do showers 
bless the harvest field } ' He watereth the hills from 
his chambers.' Does verdure clothe the plain ? ' He 
causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for 
the service of man.' And in all these forms, in myriads 
of ways, is he speaking to the hearts of his human 
family, claiming their worship, casting deep reproach 
upon their coldness and indifference, and awakening in 
every thoughtful soul the resolution of the psalmist : ' I 
will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing 
praise unto my God while I have my being. My 
meditation of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the 
Lord. ' There is, I believe, a perpetual communion 
on God's part with man, in the order, harmony, beauty, 
and majesty of creation. I believe, that I no more 
truly address loving words day by day to the children 
dearer to me than my own soul, than God has this day 
directly spoken to each and all of us, his children, in 
the sunshine and the flowers, in the mellow twilight 
and the gentle breeze. I sincerely believe, that the 
express design of this fair and wonderful creation is to 
bring the Creator near, and to make his presence felt 
by the living souls of men, — to supply a medium of 
communication between the Infinite and the finite, — to 
render visible and audible those thoughts of love, fath- 
omless as the ocean, numberless as its sands. 



120 



THE HOLY SPIRIT, 



In the same light do I regard the whole course of 
Providence. The events of life, ordered by the close 
and constant care of the Almighty, have each a voice 
from him for the spirit's ear, a lesson of truth, a message 
of duty, a word of warning or rebuke, comfort or 
encouragement. How near, how incessant the watchful 
presence indicated by our Saviour's words : ' The 
hairs of your head are all numbered.' In the mercies 
so thickly strown along our daily path, are fulfilled, in 
every one of our thoughtless moments, the words of 
holy writ : ' God hath spoken once, yea, twice, but 
man perceiveth it not.' In every sorrow comes the 
voice : ' Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it,' 

But, yet more, apart from outward forms and events, 
I believe in the intimate presence and communion of 
God with the soul of man. His hand-writing is on our 
innermost shrines of thought ; his voice thrills through 
the deepest recesses of our being. As the builder of 
a house may construct for himself a secret passage, 
opening by springs which no one else can find, so has 
the Almighty architect of the soul of man reserved his 
own hidden avenues of access, by which he visits the 
soul in its days of gladness and its night seasons of 
sorrow, in its health and its sickness, giving it meat to 
eat, of which the world knows not, letting in the day- 
spring from on high upon its darkened chambers, filling 
with the oil of joy its empty and shrunken vessels. 
None can shut out the thoughts that God sends ; but, 
unsought, unsuggested by the ordinary laws of associa- 
tion, nay, often unwelcome, they remain, return, haunt 
the soul, knock at the heart's door, and often forsake it 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



121 



not, till they are cherished and obeyed. How true to 
human experience are the psalmist's words : ' Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit ? ' Not we ourselves can 
hold so close communion with our own souls, as God 
can ; for how often does his spirit reverse our own 
inward thoughts, and say the opposite of what we were 
saying within ourselves ! We are whispering peace to 
our souls ; but the spirit cries, in a voice which self- 
delusion cannot drown, ' No peace without repentance 
and the fruits of love.' We flatter ourselves that we 
are rich and full ; but the spirit cries, 'Nay, — ye are 
poor and naked, hungry, and thirsty, — come, drink of 
my cup, and eat of my bread, and put on my beautiful 
garments.' Or, on the other hand, though in the way 
of duty, we doubt and fear ; and, in the hour of sad 
self-communion, the spirit enters, and says, ' Peace be 
with you,' and the cloud rises from our souls and melts 
away, our hearts grow warm, and burn whhin us, and 
we perceive that it is the Lord. 

Whence too, when we have trodden the path of 
transgressors, those unsought warnings, presentiments of 
evil, forebodings of penalties that we have defied ? 
Whence that uneasy, restless feeling, that will ever in- 
trude itself, when we linger too long on the roadside of 
our heavenward pilgrimage, when we forsake duty for 
pleasure, when we serve Mammon instead of God ? 
Whence those preparation seasons for the trial of faith 
or virtue, which every Christian has experienced, — sea- 
sons, when, without any outward cause, impressions 
have been borne in upon our minds, spiritual exercises 
have been induced, and views and purposes cherished, 
11 



122 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



precisely adapted to exigences just at hand, yet unfore- 
seen, as if our Father, when he saw the storm gather- 
ing, had hastened to wrap us beforehand in the mantle 
of his love, and to set our feet in a straight and safe 
path ? Whence that serene satisfaction, that joy in the 
Lord, that inward repose and harmony, which flow 
from trials well sustained and duties nobly done, and 
which give us the surest foretaste of heaven that we can 
have below ? Has there ever been a day, whether of 
duty or of sin, of joy or of sorrow, of levity or of seri- 
ousness, when, if we had strictly reviewed our heart's 
history for the day, we should not have been constrain- 
ed to confess that God had been there, and that his 
spirit had borne witness, either with, or against our 
spirits ? No. The divine spirit has always sought to 
draw us. God has been unceasingly near. ' Behold I 
stand at the door and knock,' is his voice to each of us. 
There lives not the man, who has ever succeeded in 
shutting God from his heart. Though we take the 
wings of the morning, he is before us. Though the 
darkness cover us, it hides us not from him. 

It is of these influences of the divine spirit upon the 
soul of man, that it is written, ' Quench not the spirit,' 
— ' Grieve not the holy spirit of God.' For these in- 
fluences, the Scriptures teach us, are not irresistible ; 
butj like the counsels or the influence of a faithful hu- 
man parent or friend, may be disobeyed and disregarded. 

To these same spiritual influences, welcomed and 
obeyed, the Scriptures ascribe all that is good and holy 
in man, — all the graces and virtues of the regenerate 
heart. It is by the help of God, that we discharge our 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



123 



duty, that we grow in grace, that we become followers 
of Jesus, — all which is sufficiently indicated in such 
Scriptures as these : ' By the grace of God I am what 
I am,' — ' It is God that worketh in you to will and to 
do of his good pleasure.' — ' As many as are led by the 
spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' — ' The spirit 
of God dwelleth in you.' In accordance with this idea 
of the helping spirit of God, as essential to the Chris- 
tian life, those, who yield themselves to the divine in- 
fluence, are styled 'born of the spirit,' — 'baptized 
with the holy spirit ;' and are said to ' walk after the 
spirit,' to Mive in the spirit,' and to ' have the spirit of 
God resting upon them.' 

Such is the Christian doctrine of the holy spirit^ — 
the influence of God in nature, in providence, and, 
more than all, his direct, im.mediate influence upon the 
heart of man, — not a constraining, irresistible influence, 
but an influence, which may, on the one hand, be 
grieved and quenched, or, on the other, welcomed and 
obeyed ; and which, if yielded to, becomes the source 
of everything worthy and holy in the character, — the 
fountain of renewed and sanctified affections, and of a 
Christ-like walk and conversation. 

For this spirit, for these influences, prayer prepares 
the soul, so as to render them availing and enduring. 
By prayer man opens the door of his heart to the spirit, 
that always seeks an entrance and a home there ; nor 
can any earthly parent so promptly meet the wants of 
an only child, as God, by his ever present spirit, fulfils 
the desires of the praying soul. 

I am happy to believe, that, with regard to these 



124 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



fundamental, practical views of spiritual influences, 
there is no essential difference among Christians. On 
this subject, the religious phraseology of Christians of 
different modes of faith, for the most part, coincides ; 
and all true religious experience must, of necessity, be 
coincident. This experience of the welcomed influen- 
ces and the blessed fruits of the spirit, may God grant 
us all, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 



LECTURE V. 



HUMAN NATURE. 

ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 

LO, THIS ONLY HAVE I FOUND, THAT GOD HATH MADE MAN UPRIGHT; BUT 
THEY HAVE SOUGHT OUT MANY INVENTIONS. 

Human nature, as it now is, will be our subject of 
inquiry this evening. And, as it is nay chief purpose, 
in these lectures, to discuss topics, on which we differ 
more or less widely from our fellow Christians, I will 
define at the outset the view of human nature, commonly 
termed total depravity. The fairest mode of doing this 
is by quotations from the Assembly's Catechism, which 
is still accepted as the standard of doctrine in the Cal- 
vinistic churches of Great Britain and America. The 
words of this catechism, which I will not undertake to 
interpret, are as follows : ' God created man in his own 
image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with 
dominion over his creatures. When God created man, 
he entered into a covenant with him upon condition of 
perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death. Our 
first parents, being left to the freedom of their own 
11* 



126 



HUMAN NATURE. 



will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by 
sinning against God. The covenant being made with 
Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all 
mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, 
sinned in him, and fell with him in the first transgres- 
sion. The sinfulness of that state, whereinto man fell, 
consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of 
original righteousness, the corruption of his whole na- 
ture, which is commonly called original sin, together 
with all the actual transgressions which proceed from it. 
All mankind by the Fall lost communion with God, 
are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to 
all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the 
pains of hell forever. This constitutes the misery of 
that estate, whereinto man fell.' Though this jargon 
is still acknowledged as the standard of faith, probably 
very few in our own community would pretend to in- 
terpret it, or would own themselves believers in the 
appalling consequences, which might be derived from 
it. There are perhaps few, who would assert, in so 
many words, that the unconscious infant lies under 
God's wrath and curse, and is, by virtue of his birth 
into the world, without any sinful act of his own, liable 
to the pains of hell forever. But it is now generally 
maintained by those called Calvinists, first^ that human 
nature sustained a radical change after Adam's first 
transgression ; secondly^ that Adam, as the representa- 
tive, {the federal head, as their phrase is,) of the 
whole human family, involved all his posterity in his 
own guilt ; and, thirdly^ that in some sense or degree 
men are now born sinners. These propositions demand, 
each a separate examination. 



HUMAN NATURE. 



127 



1. It is maintained, that human nature sustained a 
radical change after Adam* s first transgression. This, 
if true, is a historical fact, of which we might with 
reason expect to find some record in the Bible. We, 
however, look in vain for it. The Mosaic narrative 
says nothing of such a change. Man's place of resi- 
dence was indeed changed. He was driven from Eden, 
and a life of labor was appointed him. But would he 
have been left in indolence, had he been innocent ? 
Labor is the fundamental law of all spiritual worth and 
progress ; and we cannot suppose, that if a man had 
not transgressed, he would have been exempt from it. 
God could never have designed an earthly paradise 
for man's permanent abode. The law, ' subdue the 
earth,' wdiich was a law of arduous labor, was given 
before the fall ; and the garden of Eden was but the 
cradle of man's intellectual infancy, in which he was 
fostered, till he became sufficiently conversant with 
outward objects, to manage his own affairs with dis- 
cretion. Had he not sinned, he would still, for his 
own sake, have been removed from the garden, though 
he would have sought the wilderness in a more cheerful 
and hopeful spirit, than that, in which, after his trans- 
gression, he entered upon the stern, yet salutary disci- 
pline of a laborious life. But when he went forth, no 
curse w^as uttered upon him, or upon the partner of his 
guilt. The condition of mortal life was unfolded to 
them ; but it was not so much as hinted, that its condi- 
tion would have been essentially otherw^ise, had they 
remained innocent. Indeed, the very appointments of 
toil and physical suffering are those, on which the 



128 



HUMAN NATURE. 



blessing of God most manifestly rests, — those, from 
which proceeds the surest growth of virtue and piety, 
— those, on which the divine example of the innocent 
Saviour sheds its brightest rays. But, could it be main- 
tained that man's condition on earth was essentially 
modified by Adam's sin, still this would prove nothing 
with regard to his nature; nor can it be pretended, 
that there is the slightest allusion in the Bible to the 
change of his nature, as a historical fact. 

But the change of man's nature is inferred from the 
earliness and frequency of human guilt ever since 
Adam, — from the fact that sins are among the first 
acts of every man's moral agency. But the eating of 
the forbidden fruit is the only recorded act of Adam's 
and Eve's moral agency. They yielded to the first 
temptation, when surrounded by what seemed to be 
constraining motives to obedience. Certainly there 
never was a first sin so wanton, or so difficult to be 
accounted for as theirs. Of every other tree in the 
garden they might eat. The express voice of God had 
charged them not to eat of this. Gratitude, hope, fear, 
all conspired to insure their obedience. But they fell 
as soon as they were tempted. What more have their 
children done ? Their sin was of the same kind with 
most of the sins of their posterity, that is, the yielding 
of principle to impulse, — the seizing of a momentary 
gratification, without thought, at the time, of duty or 
of consequences. If the sins of their posterity, then, 
prove their nature to be depraved, equally does the 
first transgression of Adam and Eve prove, that they 
were created with a depraved nature. There is, in the 



HUMAN NATURE. 



129 



case of our first parents, and in that of their posterity, 
an identity, which militates strongly against the idea of 
any change of nature after the fall. 

2. It is maintained by our Calvinistic brethren, that 
Adam^ as the representative or federal head of his pos- 
terity^ involved them all in the guilt of his first trans- 
gression. This doctrine assumes for its basis the 
following alleged facts. God made at the outset a cov- 
enant with Mam in behalf of all mankind^ the con- 
ditions of which covenant were^ that, if Adam remained 
innocent^ he and all his posterity should enjoy eternal 
life J but that^ if he sinned^ he and all his posterity should 
go into everlasting punishment. Adam consented thus 
to stand for the tvhole race. They all^ therefore^ 
sinned in and through him as their head or represen- 
tative. This is expressly the doctrine of the Assem- 
bly's Catechism. It is almost too absurd to demand an 
answer ; and might, at first thought, seem too revolting 
to our instinctive notions of right and justice, to de- 
serve a respectful treatment. But it has been, and 
still is believed by many worthy and good men ; and 
therefore ought not to be passed over in silence, or 
with sneers. 

It seems a fatal objection to the doctrine just stated, 
that no mention is made in the Bible of a covenant 
between God and Adam ; nor is the slightest hint 
anywhere given of Adam's acting in behalf of his 
posterity. Then again, Adam had no right to act 
in their behalf. A representative must be author- 
ized, — he was not authorized. You and I never gave 
him a power of attorney to obey or sin in our stead > 



130 



HUMAN NATURE. 



nor is it in the nature of things possible, that we 
should be morally responsible for his acts. We may in- 
deed feel their consequences ; but we cannot be involved 
in their guilt, unless we authorized him to act for us. 

Yet again, supposing that Adam had had the power 
of making such a covenant, his making it would have 
been his first transgression, and a sin infinitely more 
heinous than his eating the forbidden fruit, nay, a sin, 
for which his name ought to be forever accursed among 
men. Suppose that I had the power of covenanting, 
that, whatever sins I might commit, they should impart 
a guilty taint to my remotest posterity, would you not 
think me less a man, than a fiend, to consent to such a 
covenant ? 

The only passage of Scripture commonly quoted in 
support of this idea of Adam's federal headship^ is 
that, where St. Paul says, that, ' as by one man sm 
entered into the world, and death by sin, even so death 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned ; ' and 
also, that ' by one man's disobedience many were made 
sinners.'* But the whole of the sentence last quoted, 
is, ' For as by one man's disobedience many were 
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many 
be made righteous.' Now, how are many made right- 
eous by Chrisfs obedience ? Manifestly, by copying it, 
and in no other possible way, — by feeling its influence, 
and obeying its example. In like manner, (if there is 
any force in the apostle's comparison,) are many made 
sinners by AdamPs disobedience^ by following it, by 
imitating it, by yielding to like temptations. But, in 

* Romans v. 12-19. 



HUMAN NATURE. 



131 



this same connection, the apostle says, that ' death 
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that 
had not sinned after the simihtude of Adam's trans- 
gression,' by whom, Doddridge, (whose orthodoxy as 
a critic none will question,) says, and rightly, as I 
think, that infants were intended. Now, if Adam 
sinned in behalf of his posterity, infants, having sinned 
in and through him, could not have been excluded by 
the apostle from a share in his guilt. Moreover, this 
phrase, the similitude of Adam'^s transgression^ is of 
prime importance, as defining the sense of the whole 
passage. The human race in general is here spoken 
of by St. Paul, as somehow connected with the sin of 
their first parent. The apostle speaks of some, who 
are not thus connected, and describes them as not hav- 
ing ' sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.' 
The inference is irresistible, that the rest of mankind 
were spoken of as connected with Adam's sin, because 
they had ' sinned after the simihtude of his transgres- 
sion,' and that their connection with him was that of 
similarity or imitation. Let it be also borne in mind, 
that this 'similitude of Adam's transgression' could 
not have existed in any of his posterity, if the race had 
undergone a change of nature ; but the similitude did, 
and does exist, if his posterity, with a nature as pure 
as his, have in general fallen into sin as wantonly and 
as promptly as he did. 

Once more, the idea of Adam's having bound the 
whole race in the guilt of his first transgression is op- 
posed to very many express declarations of holy writ, 
of which it may be sufficient to quote the following, 



132 



B.UMAN NATUHE. 



than which 1 can conceive of nothing more decisive. 
' The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, 
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son : 
the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, 
and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.'^ 
3. It is maintained, (and perhaps the idea in the 
minds of many professed believers in man's native de- 
pravity, may amount to little more than this,) that men 
are in some sense or degree born sinners^ — that every 
man comes into the world depraved^ that is, averse 
from all that is good, and inclined to all that is evil. 
With regard to this notion, the first question is, — is 
God the creator of every individual human being that 
is now born, so that men and women of the present 
day may, in any proper sense, be termed his workman- 
ship and his offspring ? If so, and if man be born de- 
praved, then does God create that, which is positively 
bad and evil, — that, which is utterly opposed to his 
will and law, — that, in which he can take no pleasure, 
— that, which he must needs view from the first with 
positive displeasure and abhorrence. Now it is the 
height of absurdity to maintain, that an Almighty being 
can create what he hates and abhors, or that an infin- 
itely good and holy being can create what is essentially 
evil and vile. It is intrinsically necessary, that what- 
ever God creates should be good, very good, per- 
fect in its kind and for its purpose. What he creates 
must necessarily be the transcript of his own ideas, 
and therefore pure as he is pure ; nor can I conceive 



* Ezekiel xviii. 20, 



HUMAN NATURE. 



133 



of a fouler blasphemy, than to ascribe to the eternal 
Father the authorship of what is intrinsically vile and 
hateful. 

But I apprehend that the advocates of the popular 
doctrine of depravity are not, in general, chargeable 
with this blasphemy. Their phraseology would seem 
to imply, that God was the Creator of Adam and 
Eve only, — that he is not in any proper sense 
the Creator of the men and women that now are, 
— that the Greek poet was mistaken, when he said, 
^ For we are also His offspring.' They attribute to 
Adam, rather than to God, the authorship of human 
nature as it now is. But I am content to rest the 
truth, that God is the Creator and Father of all men^ 
on the simple doctrine of a paternal Providence as 
revealed in the Bible. I cannot believe, that they, the 
hairs of whose heads are all numbered, that they, who 
are bidden to dismiss all doubt and care because God 
careth for them, are thus dependent on any other being 
than their Maker, — are thus kept and blest by any 
other than their Father. And, if God be their Maker 
and their Father, I know that their nature must be 
good, however frail, and however much they may have 
perverted it. 

I have thus attempted to analyze, and to refute in 
detail, the popular doctrine of depravity. There are, 
however, several general observations to be made 
upon it. 

The idea of native depravity is opposed to our own 
consciousness. We do not feel as if sin were natural 
to us. There are portions of our nature, that always 
12 



134 



HUMAN NATURE. 



rise up against it We always feel, that we were made 
for something better. We are stung with self-reproach 
when we sin, which could not be the case, were sin 
natural ; for whatever is in accordance with nature 
must needs be satisfying and agreeable to the nature, 
with which it accords. We never sin without a 
motive, whereas, were we natively depraved, we should 
sin spontaneously, and from the mere love of sin. 
Bad men, the worst men, never sin for the sake of 
sinning ; but act kindly and do right, when they are not 
expressly urged to sin by appetite or passion. You 
may ask your way to a particular place, of the vilest 
sinner living ; and, unless he has some immediate 
motive for misleading you, he will point out the right 
way, with a minuteness and assiduity proportioned to 
the intricacy of the road, and to the inconvenience 
which might result from your not finding it. Do you 
not suppose, that it is one of the rarest of events for a 
man to be in any such matter misdirected or deceived, 
from the mere caprice of wickedness, without some 
special motive of cupidity or revenge ? Yet, were 
men natively depraved, they would be perpetually mis- 
guiding and circumventing each other, for the mere 
love of evil ; and it would require a selfish motive, in 
order for an unregenerate man to tell the truth, or to 
perform the most common act of neighborly courtesy 
or kindness. 

Those who have been most familiar with crime, your 
Howards, your Fryes, and your Tuckermans, those 
who dive down into the lowest depths of depravity to 
seek and save its victims, will tell you, that they find 



\ 



HUMAN NATURE. l35 

none utterly depraved ; and that, even among those, 
who have been strangers to every humanizing influence, 
who have been born and brought up in the most 
pestilential atmosphere, and within the very gates of 
death, there are to be traced the filaments of noble 
powers and lofty sentiments. They will bring forth 
for you, from among the offscourings of all things, as 
we are too prone to deem them, striking traits and 
instances of sympathy, pity, persevering kindness, fidel- 
ity, self-sacrifice. They will tell you of a quick moral 
sensibility and a tender conscience among these out- 
casts, with regard to the few things, in which their 
duty has been made known to them. They will tell 
you of yearnings and aspirations for goodness and 
for purity, even in the dens of the grossest pollution. 
And do not all these things betoken a nature made 
in the image of God, and noble still in its debase- 
ment and defilement ? Such developments of char- 
acter cannot be traced to any kind or degree of 
moral culture ; for they are often witnessed where 
there has been no culture, but, on the other hand, 
every possible form and mode of vicious example 
and influence from the cradle. The elements of 
good, that are found in persons thus trained, God 
must have lodged in their natures, as they came from 
his hands, — else they are an effect without any assign- 
able cause. 

The phenomena of infancy and childhood, also, 
rebut the idea of native depravity. There is, in the 
young spirit, a simplicity, an ingenuousness, which can 
bear no kindred with a sinful nature. In the fountain 



136 



HUMAN NATURE. 



of being, as it first rises, there is a transparent purity, 
which indicates that it can gush from no polluted source. 
The moral sensibilities of young children are always in 
the right direction ; their moral intuitions marvellously 
clear and true. They are, indeed, easily and often led 
astray, — -their impulses are strong, their power of 
resistance weak ; yet the prompt tear of penitence when 
they sin, and the panting earnestness, with which they 
hasten to seek forgiveness of their human parents, and, 
when rightly directed, of their Father in heaven, 
sufficiently show ' the work of the law written in their 
hearts.' And how quick do their eyes glisten at the 
recital of a good deed, — how strong iheirjoathing for 
all that is ungenerous, base, and vile ! How free their 
love, — how slow their hatred, even under unkind or 
harsh treatment ! The closer my acquaintance with 
little children, with the more utter horror and loathing 
do I turn from the remotest approach to the doctrine 
of native depravity. 1 feel, when with little children, 
that I am very near the pure fountain of Hfe. They 
seem to me fresh from the baptism of a Father's bless- 
ing. I see his signature on their innocent brows, on 
their guileless spirits. I can sympathize in full with 
the beautiful words of a favorite poet : — 

* A boundless wealth of love and power 

In the young spirit lies, — 
Love, to enfold all natures 

In one benign embrace, — 
Power, to diffuse a blessing wide 
O'er all the human race ! ' 

But to think that there is depravity in those young 



HUMAN NATURE. 



137 



spirits, as God sends them forth, — to think that there 
is more of evil than of good in what we, parents, are 
accustomed to hail as God's best gift, — to believe that 
there is a frown of divine displeasure, a sentence of 
damnation, hanging over the sweet babe, — to believe 
that the child, as yet incapable of discerning between 
good and evil, can even need pardon or redemption, — 
oh it would separate me from my httle ones. I would 
sooner go into the wilderness, and hve a hermit, than 
look upon them with the eye, with which I must view 
them, did I believe that either God or Adam had made 
them sinners. Not mine should be the hopeless, 
despairing task, of attempting to repair the work, which 
God had sent into the world defiled and ruined. 

The idea of man's being born a sinner will also 
appear unreasonable, when we consider the nature of 
sin. ' Sin is the transgression of the law.' The very 
idea of sin implies wrong volition on the part of the 
sinner. A thing or being may be, by nature, defective, 
ill-constructed ; but sin must be a matter of personal 
choice. 

But, could we admit as possible the doctrine of 
native depravity, it w^ould render sin in its active forms 
impossible, or rather, it would make that, which we 
now call goodness, sin. The utmost that can be 
expected or demanded of any person, is, that he should 
be and do what, in his very nature, God has fitted him 
to be and do. The nature of a person includes all his 
perceptions, instincts, impulses, powers, and faculties. 
In a sinful nature, these must all be evil, so that to do 
evil would be the right and appropriate work of such a 
13=^ 



138 



HUMAN NATURE. 



nature ; while, in order to be or to do good, it must 
violate the fitness of things, depart from the analogy of 
other beings, and thwart the purposes of its creation. 
A sinful nature and accountability for moral evil cannot 
coexist. If God has given me a sinful nature, he gave 
it to me with the design and expectation that I should 
do evil, and evil only. I may then say with perfect 
fitness, 

' Evil, be thou my good ; ' 

and, if I can claim any praise or benefit at God's hands, 
it will be for cultivatiing and exercising my evil propen- 
sities, for making myself as bad as I can, and doing as 
much evil as I can. If he has given me an evil nature, 
I should offend him and incur his just displeasure, by 
trying to be good or to do good. If I am blameworthy, 
and penally accountable to God, for my sins, (and my 
own conscience and the word of God both tell me that 
I am,) it must be because he has given me a nature 
fitted for duty and for goodness. 

The Scriptural argument for man's native depravity 
is almost too slender to claim attention. The leading 
proof-text for this doctrine has already been made the 
subject of discussion. I know of but two others, which 
it is necessary to notice. One is the expression of 
David : ' I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my 
mother conceive me.' ^ One must strangely misappre- 
hend the design and spirit of this psalm, in looking to it 
for an explicit, formal statement of theological dogmas. 
This psalm was the expression of David's intense 



* Psalm li. 5. 



HUMAN NATURE. 



139 



anguish and remorse for one of the most flagitious crimes, 
with which a human being was ever stained. His 
agony of contrite sorrow was commensurate with the 
enormity of his guilt ; and the language of passionate 
grief and self-reproach is always hyperbolical. At such 
a moment, how naturally would his earliest sins, the 
sins of very infancy, like the ghosts of the long buried, 
have flashed upon his mental vision, and called forth 
vehement expressions of the deepest self-condemnation ! 
And how natural an expression of those early sins are 
the words now under consideration, especially when 
we consider the highly impassioned style, in which the 
whole psalm is written ! There is no greater hyperbole 
in these words, viewed as referring to the sins of child- 
hood and youth, than there is in the following words 
in the same connection : ' Purge me with hyssop, and 
I shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the 
bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.' We do 
not suppose that David's bones had actually been 
broken^ or that he expected to be whiter than snow ; 
why not then apply to the words under discussion the 
same rules of interpretation, which must confessedly be 
applied to these expressions ? But, whatever is meant 
by these words, it is evident, beyond a shadow of doubt, 
that David did not write this psalm as a careful, logical 
statement of doctrine, but merely as a humble, heart- 
stricken confession of sin before God. As such, it is 
to be read, interpreted, felt, and made profitable for re- 
proof, and instruction in righteousness. 

The other proof-text, to which I would make par- 



140 



HUMAN NATURE. 



ticular reference, is this : ' We all had our conversation 
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desire 
of the flesh and of the mind ; and were by nature 
children of wrath^ even as others.'^ St. Paul is here 
addressing those recently converted from idolatry, and 
has spoken of their former sinful habits, which had 
subjected them to the divine displeasure. He adds : 
' We Jews also led a similarly sinful life before our 
conversion, and were by nature^ that is, in our former 
condition^ as much the subjects of the divine displeas- 
ure, as much the children of wrath, as you were.' 
And the moral, which St. Paul deduces from this 
statement is, ^By grace are ye saved,' that is, Christian 
privileges came, not because you or we deserved them, 
but through the free, unpurchased mercy of God. The 
phrase, by nature^ St. Paul elsewhere employs to 
denote condition^ as, for instance, where he says : ' We 
who are Jews by nature^ and not sinners of the Gen- 
tiles.' t 

But the Scriptural argument against the doctrine of 
native depravity, and in behalf of the rectitude of 
human nature, as it comes from the Creator's hand, is 
full, far beyond our need, and to the utmost limit of our 
desire. 

In the first place, the almost numberless recognitions, 
in the Bible, of man's moral accountability and of a 
future retribution, imply the native rectitude of human 
nature ; for, in the precise proportion, in which human 
nature is depraved, man's accountability ceases, and 
he ceases to merit punishment for his sins. 

* Ephesians ii. 3. t Galatians ii. 15. 



HUMAN NATURE. 



141 



Again, man is constantly addressed and treated in 
the Bible, as if he had within himself the means of 
forming a correct moral decision in many cases, though 
not the capacity to frame a perfect rule of conduct. 
Our Saviour asked the people : ' Why even of your- 
selves judge ye not what is right ?'^' He was in the 
constant habit of appealing to men's consciences, as if 
conscience had a real existence, and were always on 
the side of virtue. St. Paul speaks of the Gentiles, 
who have not God's revealed law, as ' doing by nature 
the things contained in the law,' as ' being a law unto 
themselves,' and as ' shewing the work of the law 
written in their hearts,'! — all which is utterly incon- 
sistent with the idea of native depravity. 

Again, our Saviour speaks of little children, in a way, 
which shews that he saw no marks of depravity in them. 
When he wished to rebuke the unholy strife of his 
apostles, he ' called a litlie child unto him, and set him 
in the midst of them, and said. Verily, I say unto you, 
except ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.':]: 
When little children were brought, that he might bless 
them, instead of designating them as the children of 
perdition, and as lying under God's wrath and curse, 
he said, ' Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' § These 
texts are with me decisive, as to our Savioiir^s opinion 
of human nature ; and I desire to look no farther. I 
am sure that the nature, whose most recent and genuine 
representatives Christ pronounced nearest the kingdom 

* Luke xii. 57. t Romans ii. 14, 15, 

t Matthew xviii. 2, 3. § Matthew xix. 14. 



143 



HUMAN NATURE. 



of heaven, must be a good nature, and worthy of its 
Maker and Father. 

I might accumulate Scriptural proof indefinitely ; but 
I have given you as much as you can need. 

I have, in this lecture, occupied myself chiefly in ex- 
posing and combating a radically false view of human 
nature. But, while I would not abase, I would not 
inordinately glorify human nature. I believe it good 
and pure, yet frail. All man's appetites, impulses, 
powers, and innate sentiments, are good in themselves ; 
and, fitly balanced, and employed in right directions 
and on worthy objects, must conduce to his own true 
good, and to the glory of his Maker. But let their bal- 
ance be deranged, or let any of them be misdirected, 
they become ministers of sin and sources of evil. The 
bodily appetites are good in themselves, and, if confined 
to their lawful gratification, never interfere with man's 
virtue. The native emotions of the soul are all equally 
innocent ; it is only excess or misdirection, that can 
make them sinful. The affections are the crown and 
joy of life ; and, while fixed on worthy objects, are 
the unfailing means of pure happiness and vigorous 
spiritual growth. But human nature is composed of 
cravings, desires, and capacities, which must, at first, 
be nourished and directed through the agency of others, 
often through indiscreet, sometimes through wicked 
agency, and almost always through the blended agency 
of many, in which some faulty ingredients can hardly 
fail to mingle. Hence the sins of infancy and child- 
hood ; and the doctrine of native depravity ascribes to 
the Almighty's workmanship what is due to our rude, 



HUMAN NATURE. 143 

or weak, or foolish handling of it, — ascribes to nature 
what flows from education. 

But the hour forbids my pursuing this train of re- 
mark ; and I close by barely pointing out two impor- 
tant practical uses of the doctrine, which it has been 
the aim of this lecture to establish, namely, that God 
sends every human spirit into the world pure, free 
from all stain of sin, and endowed with no powers 
or affections, which are not good in themselves, and 
capable of a worthy and virtuous direction and devel- 
opment. 

1. This view magnifies the evil of sin, and makes 
transgression against God a fit ground for the deepest 
self-reproach and the most hearty penitence. Did I 
believe that God had given me a sinful nature, I could 
not reproach myself for sin ; for God would be the sin- 
ner ; — I could not repent ; for I should be conscious 
of no blame. But if God has made me upright, and I 
have sinned against the good and pure nature which he 
has given me, — if I have violated the laws of my own 
being, and made that, which he ordained for life, death, 
— then have I abundant reason for contrite sorrow. 
The sin is mine. I am not tempted of God. I can 
cast no reproach on the Author of my being. I must 
lay my hand upon ray mouth, and my mouth in the 
dust, and cry, unclean^ unclean, 

2. The view, which regards human nature as na- 
tively sinless and pure, cherishes humility. Did I be- 
lieve myself utterly depraved by nature, I can hardly 
set limits to what my pride would be, on account of 
whatever slight and imperfect degree of virtue I might 



144 



HUMAN NATURE. 



possess ; for it would be so much raised from a barren 
and blighted soil. It would be a worthy ground for 
boasting. But if God has given me a nature perfectly- 
adapted to his service, and capable of all things high 
and holy, and if I have, in ways and times without 
number, departed from the dictates of that nature, vio- 
lated its laws, cramped or distorted its energies, neg- 
lected its culture, and suffered wild grapes to grow on 
the vine of God's careful planting and watchful hus- 
bandry, then must I feel humbled in view of what God 
has done and I have not done, of what he has given 
and I have not rendered back. 



LECTURE YL 



REGENERATION. 

JOHN III. 3. 

EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

The connection, in which the conversation with 
Nicodemus occurs, casts so essential light upon the 
meaning of our text, that I will commence my dis- 
course by calling your attention to it. Unfortunately, 
the arbitrary division of chapters breaks the thread of 
the narrative, which includes the last three verses of the 
second chapter, - — ' When Jesus was in Jerusalem in 
the feast day, many believed in his name, when they 
saw the miracles which he did,' that is, believed in him 
theoretically, — acknowledged him as a divine teacher, 
but without submitting their hearts and lives to his 
teachings. ' But Jesus did not commit himself unto 
them,' — did not repose entire trust in them, — did not 
admit them to a confidential footing ; for he placed no 
value upon mere profession, or a mere barren belief. 
' He knew all men,' read their characters, ' knew what 
was in man ; ' and bestowed or withheld his confidence 
accordingly. Under this general statement, to illustrate 
13 



146 



REGENERATION. 



the mode in which Jesus dealt with those, to whom 
'he did not commit himself,' the evangelist now brings 
forward the case of Nicodemus as an individual exam- 
ple. There was one of these intellectual, yet not 
spiritual converts, 'Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews,' 
who for fear of losing caste among the Pharisees, 
' came to Jesus by night,' no doubt with the purpose 
of securing his favor, whenever his star should be on 
the ascendant. He came with a profession of the 
belief, at which he had arrived on the feast-day : 
' We know that thou art a teacher sent from God ; for 
no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except 
God be with him.' Jesus, knowing what was in the 
man, and perceiving that his heart had not been touched 
by 'the word of the kingdom,' makes to him the dec- 
laration, which I have taken for my text : ' Except a 
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' 
By this we must obviously understand our Saviour as 
saying to him: ' Nicodemus, it is not enough for thee to 
believe me a divine teacher, miraculously empowered 
and endowed. It is not enough for thee to be willing 
to follow me outwardly, when wealth and honor shall 
be in my train. Wouldst thou truly be my disciple, 
thou must be mine inwardly, in principle and character, 
— thou must be a different man, a new man, — thou 
must be born again.' 

With regard to this passage, several erroneous views 
have been maintained. Some have supposed these 
w^ords addressed to Nicodemus as a Jew, and have 
understood them as referring merely to the change 
of opinion^ necessary in order for him to become 



REGENERATION. 



147 



a Christian. But, as we have seen, this change had 
already taken place, at least so far as it took place 
in the apostles during their Master's lifetime ; for 
they ceased not to be devout Jews on account of their 
allegiance to Jesus. Nicodemus already believed Jesus 
to be a divine teacher. The change, which remained 
to be wrought in him, was that of principle and char- 
acter. 

It has been maintained by the Romish Church, and 
by many members of the English and American Epis- 
copal Church, in whose service-book the idea is dis- 
tinctly recognized, that baptism^ even infant baptism, is 
the regeneration here spoken of ; for, in amplifying his 
meaning, our Saviour says : ' Except a man be born of 
water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
dom of God.' But, in my opinion, water in this verse 
does not even refer to Christian baptism ; but to a form 
of baptism, with which Nicodemus was well acquainted. 
When the Jews received a proselyte into their fold, it 
was their custom to baptise, or wash with water, him 
and his whole family ; and after this process, they were 
accustomed to call the proselyte new-born^ or one born 
again. Now our Saviour introduces the ivater in this 
discourse, to signify to Nicodemus, that it was no such 
superficial process that he intended by the new birth, 
that a washing with water was not enough, and that 
something inward, not outward, must be wrought, in 
order to constitute true regeneration. ' Except a man 
be born, not merely of the water, which you deem 
enough to admit a man to the privileges of Judaism, 
but also of the divine spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God.' 



148 



REGENERATION. 



We have arrived, then, at the conclusion, that it is 
no mere change of opinions, nor yet a mere outward 
rite or profession, that is impHed in being born again ; 
but that the phrase denotes something inward and spir- 
itual. Nicodemus stood, with reference to Christianity, 
precisely as the great mass of those born in Christian 
countries, and baptized in infancy, now stand, — in the 
attitude of intellectual belief, but not in that of moral 
obedience ; nor is there any ground, on which the 
requisition of the new birth could have been made of 
Nicodemus, on which it should not also be made of 
every person of mature understanding, who is not 
already, in heart and life, a sincere and devoted follower 
of Christ. We are now prepared to answer the fol- 
lowing questions, with reference to regeneration. 
What is regeneration ? Is it essential to every human 
being ? Is it instantaneous, or gradual ? Is it an indeli- 
ble process ; or may the regenerate fall from their high 
estate ? By what agency is it affected ? What evidence 
of it in ourselves may we deem sufficient ? What evi- 
dence of it should we seek in others, as a prerequisite 
to Christian fellowship ? 

I. What is regeneration ? I hardly need tell you, 
that regeneration and being born again are synony- 
mous, — the former being a word of Latin derivation, 
equivalent to the latter in Saxon English. The idea 
is that of a second birth. There are various orders of 
beings, that are born twice. The butterfly'' is born at 
first a caterpillar, a mere earthworm, an unsightly, 
grovelling creature, without any apparent means of 
rising higher or becoming more beautiful. He is born 



REGENERATION. 



149 



again, a light, airy, beautiful being, with wings of gold 
and scarlet, the playmate of the zephyrs. Yet, when 
you examine his body, it is still the caterpillar, the 
earthworm, though etherealized, — the same shape, 
though endowed with an elasticity and beauty, to which 
before it was an utter stranger. And so likewise, in 
the caterpillar, there were the unseen rudiments of 
those beautiful wings, — the power, in its hidden germ, 
of that graceful flight. Thus his new birth is not a 
change, but a development, of his nature, — not a new 
creation, but the putting forth of portions of his being, 
previously dormant. Man, too, in order to be what 
God means that he should be, must be born twice. 
For he is at first born merely an animal being, and a 
child of earth, — with powers, that fit him for a resi- 
dence here, and the enjoyment of outward and earthly 
good, — with propensities, that dispose him to a grovel- 
ling life, without any aim beyond the present sphere of 
being. He is born indeed with spiritual capacities, but 
they are like the caterpillar's wings, at first unseen, 
folded, dormant ; and, before they manifest themselves 
at all, the animal nature has acquired a decided, fearful 
preponderance and supremacy. Thus, when the spirit- 
ual nature at length begins to put forth, it generally 
finds itself overshadowed and dwarfed by the animal, 
so that it remains altogether subordinate, verifying, in 
him who has been born but once, the words of the 
wisdom of Solomon : ' The corruptible body presseth 
down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth 
down the mind that museth upon many things.' There- 
fore is it that a man must be born again, — born into 
13* 



150 



REGENERATION. 



the spiritual world, - — born again, not by a change, but 
by a development of his nature, by the expanding of 
those wings of praise and prayer, that have remained 
folded and unused, by his entering upon a new sphere 
of being, and becoming a citizen of the unseen and 
spiritual world. 

At the butterfly's first birth, his ethereal powers and 
tendencies are bound up, and crippled by the terrestrial. 
By his second birth, the ethereal element is put forth 
with sufficient vigor to buoy up and etherealize the 
terrestrial. In like manner, by virtue of man's first 
birth, the body weighs down and cramps the spiritual 
nature ; but, by the second birth, the spiritual nature is 
drawn forth with an energy sufficient to subdue and 
spirituahze every bodily appetite and passion, and to 
make the body a willing servant of the soul. ' That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh,' earthly, sensual ; 
' that only, which is born of the spirit, is spirit.' A 
spiritual state of the heart, of the affections, of the 
conduct, must be the result of a new and spiritual birth, 
just as an animal and earthly life is the result of the 
first birth of a human being into the outward world. 
As, by being born of the flesh, we bear the image of 
the earthly, so, by being born of the spirit, must we 
acquire the image of the heavenly. By our first birth, 
the animal nature has and keeps the supremacy ; regen- 
eration is the process, by which the spiritual nature 
acquires and retains the supremacy. By virtue of our 
first birth, we dwell upon the earth, and are adapted to 
it ; by regeneration, we enter the kingdom of God, the 
spiritual world, and are fitted for its society, its duties, 



REGENERATION. 



151 



and its joys. By our first birth, we become heirs of 
the infirmities and ills of a mortal life ; by regeneration, 
we acquire the powers and properties of an immortal 
being. 

II. We next ask : Is regeneration essential to every 
human being ? Can none but the regenerate enter the 
kingdom of God ? Our very definition of regeneration 
answers this question sufficiently. ' Flesh and blood 
cannot inherit the kingdom of God.' For what is the 
kingdom of God ? It is a society of all good and 
faithful spirits, bound together by the love and service 
of the Almighty. It is a kingdom, whose law is piety 
and duty, whose life is prayer and praise. It is a 
kingdom, where spiritual relations alone are recognized, 
where all dwell as children of God and brethren in 
Christ. Now it is absurd to maintain that man, any 
man, is born into this outward world, with powers, 
tastes, and habits, that fit him for such a society. It 
is absurd to maintain that any man can be fitted for 
this society, without a new development of powers and 
affections, on the full exercise of which he does not 
enter by virtue of his birth into the outward world. 

The innocent child needs to be born again ; for he 
brings into the world, not indeed a sinful nature, but 
a nature, whose better part unfolds not at once. And, 
in order for him to become fit for the kingdom of 
heaven, his spiritual nature must be developed and 
made supreme, which it is not in infancy, though it 
may be in early childhood. Perhaps in some instances, 
but seldom, regeneration is the result of education 
alone, so that the child's first choice is that of God, 



153 



REGENERATION. 



and duty, and spiritual pursuits and pleasures, and his 
character, from the earliest period of his moral agency, 
is a religious character. I say that this is probably the 
case but seldom, not because I think it intrinsically 
unnatural. On the other hand, I regard it as the 
natural result of such an education, as a child ought to 
have. But a thoroughly religious education has no 
doubt been exceedingly rare ; for, of religious parents, 
there are too many, who give their children a worldly 
education ; and, when parents do all that they ought 
and can, still they divide the education of their children 
with many persons and influences adverse to the spiritual 
life. For these reasons, most persons, if not all, live, 
for a longer or shorter period, a merely animal or 
worldly life, with little thought of spiritual things, with 
little taste for religious pursuits or enjoyments. And 
this life, however harmless, is a life of sin, because 
passed in the neglect of known duty. In this case, 
regeneration is a double process. It includes a pulling 
down, as well as a building up, — a death to sin, as 
well as a spiritual birth, — the putting off of the old 
man, as well as the putting on of the new man, — the 
dethroning of flesh and sense, as well as the enthroning 
of God in the heart, — in fine, conversion, an entire 
change of character, a new heart, a new life. The 
infant needs to be regenerated, — you cannot say that 
he needs to be converted^; for, if not probable, it is at 
least theoretically possible, that his regeneration may 
be effected by education alone. But in him, who has 
once willingly lived, for however short a season, a 
merely animal or worldly life, regeneration can take 
place only by means of conversion. 



REGENERATION. 153 



But how is it with those, who die too young to have 
formed religious characters ? They, I reply, need 
regeneration, as much as if they had lived ; for they 
have been for the most part obedient to mere bodily 
instincts, and they die with their spiritual natures 
undeveloped. They have indeed, wrapped within their 
souls, the power of an angelic and immortal destiny ; 
but it is folded and dormant, and needs, in order that 
they may be fit for heaven, to be expanded, and made 
quick, powerful, and supreme. But the infant dies 
sinless. He has no unholy desires, no evil habits, no 
unworthy loves, to make him wretched in the world 
whither he goes ; and he goes where no fault, or error, 
or negligence in his education can render his regenera- 
tion doubtful, or make sin possible. He goes into the 
immediate presence of a Father, whose love must at 
once pervade and fill his unoccupied heart ; for the 
innocent need only to know God, in order to love him. 
And the work of regeneration, which, in the world's 
imperfect school, it might have taken years to accom- 
plish, may be the work of hours or moments in that 
higher school, where Jesus is the teacher. 

But how is it with virtuous heathen, who have been 
faithful to the light that they have enjoyed, but have 
attained so inadequate views of duty and of divine truth, 
that their characters must needs fall very far short of 
that of the regenerate Christian } I answer, that, if 
they have governed their hearts and lives by the best 
rules of duty known to them, their regeneration has 
commenced, — they have acquired a love of duty, the 
habit of self-denial, a spiritual frame of mind, all which 



154 



REGENERATION. 



are traits of the regenerate character. They have the 
rectitude and singleness of purpose, the hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, requisite for their entrance 
into the Redeemer's fold. All that they need, to bring 
them to the stature of the perfect in Christ Jesus, is 
religious knowledge ; and the body is the veil, which 
hides that knowledge from them. As soon as the 
veil is rent away, they behold their God and their 
Redeemer, — light bursts at once upon their disem- 
bodied spirits, completes their regeneration, and thus 
fits them for heaven. 

But, not only those of preeminent lustre amidst 
surrounding darkness, not only those, whom we are 
accustomed to call the great and good men of heathen- 
ism, — many, very many others, I believe, will come 
from the east and the west, from the north and the 
south, and take their places among the children of the 
kingdom, — yes, literally among the children of the 
kingdom, in the place, on the footing of little children. 
While my own conscience tells me, that if I, and such 
as I, fail to clothe ourselves with all the graces of the 
regenerate heart, we shall be most righteously cast into 
the outer darkness, and, whatever we suffer, shall know 
and feel that God is just, I cannot believe that those, 
who, whether in heathen or in Christian lands, have not 
had the opportunity of religious culture, are all to forfeit 
heaven. No. I believe that God reveals some portion 
of his law to every rational being, however ignorant or 
degraded. I believe that there is some one thing, in 
which those altogether born in sin know their duty, that 
there is one talent committed even to the least privileged 



REGENERATION. 



155 



of the race, and that, if that one talent be improved, or 
that one duty discharged, the opportunity for complete 
regeneration, not vouchsafed to them on earth, may be 
afforded them in heaven. The keeping of the law in 
one point, if that one be the only point, on which the 
law is known, must make the soul willing and glad to 
keep the whole law, when the whole is revealed. 
Wherever, among the outcast and down-trodden on 
pagan or Christian soil, among those, who have had 
around them only depraved examples and corrupt influ- 
ences, with not a ray of gospel light or a word of 
Christian teaching, — wherever, I say, among such, 
and in the midst of heart-sickening vice, there is a 
single beautiful trait of character, be it truth, or fidehty, 
or sympathy, or compassion, or benevolence, or a mere 
consciousness of degradation and misery, a vague, yet 
earnest longing for something purer and better, and a 
preparation of soul to hail the light if it should come, — 
such spirits, I believe, are among those to whom the 
Judge will say, not, ' Depart, ye cursed,' but, ' Come 
unto me, ye weary ones and heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest.' I believe that such spirits need only 
the light of heaven to regenerate them, while, for those 
who have buried or wasted either the one talent or the 
ten, there can be reserved only the doom of the wicked 
and slothful servant. Certainly there is, there must be 
in the judgment, a world-wide difference between those, 
to whom the Judge can say, ^ Ye have both seen and 
hated both me and my Father,' and those, who had 
not the offer of salvation distinctly made to them, but 
who. would have leaped with joy, had it reached them. 



156 



REGENERATION. 



I should be sorry to think that 1 have a single 
hearer, so much a stranger to the love of God and 
the spirit of Christ, as to deem me a setter-forth of 
lax and dangerous doctrines, because I can, in deep 
and thankful sincerity, lay up a hope in heaven for 
those, to whom on earth no door of hope is opened. 
It is no lax doctrine for us. The law, that, where 
much is given, much will be required, but that, where 
little is bestowed, little will be demanded, is a law of 
uncompromising strictness and severity for you and 
me, who have known only the clear sunlight of gospel 
privilege. No one can place higher than I would, the 
responsibilities of those, who have the means of knowing 
Christ. But I earnestly protest against making the 
harsh and gloomy views, that one may take with regard 
to the unprivileged and benighted, a standard of piety. 
To the shame of Christians, this is often done ; and I 
have known the piety of ministers of the gospel called 
in question, for no other reason, than that they main- 
tained that the heathen would not be cast in a body into 
everlasting torments. I should be half disposed to hurl 
back the accusation, were it not written, ' ' Judge not, 
that ye be not judged ; ' for I cannot but feel that the 
man, who cherishes such sentiments, and myself, believe 
and worship two entirely different Gods. 

III. We next inquire. Is regeneration instantaneous^ 
or gradual ? To man's eye, it must generally appear 
gradual ; for the influences, which God commonly 
employs to convert the soul, are gradual. Our Saviour 
also compares the growth of religion in the heart of 
man to the growth of grain, ' first the blade, then the 



REGENERATION. 



157 



ear, after that the full corn in the ear.' No doubt, 
many of what are called sudden conversions are 
gradual, (indeed, most of the cases of that kind, 
with which I have been conversant, have been so,) 
the particular event, or season of excitement, to 
which they are ascribed, being the occasion, rather 
than the cause of their development. In such cases, 
there has been a long series of unseen struggles, 
suppressed groanings, secret penitential regrets, heart- 
felt aspirations for holiness ; and the religious char- 
acter, which shoots up before man's sight with ap- 
parent suddenness, to the divine eye is the growth 
of months or years. The phenomena of such a con- 
version, (if we may compare joyful things with fear- 
ful,) might be hkened to the eruption of a volcano, 
which, to the ignorant beholder, seems sudden, but to 
effect which, subterranean fires may have been burning 
for a century. But there are undoubtedly other cases, 
in which regeneration is really a very rapid process, — 
in which an immense amount of inward emotion and 
effort is crowded into an exceedingly brief period, 
God's convicting and converting spirit sometimes 
seems to fall like lightning from the heavens. We 
have seen those, who have professed, and seemed, 
to come at once out of midnight darkness into God's 
marvellous light. Yet, in most instances, and, as 
I cannot but think, in the most hopeful cases, the 
dawn first reddens, and the day-star rises, and the sky 
becomes bright and beautiful so gradually, that one 
can hardly say when night gives place to day. 

In all cases, however, there is, doubtless, to the 
14 



158 



REGENERATION. 



divine eye, a moment when the new birth takes place, 
when the scale turns, when the natural man loses, 
and the spiritual man gains the supremacy, when 
duty, piety, and heaven, assume the mastery over 
meaner passions and affections. The character always 
has for its index the ruling love, — the predominant 
aim, desire, or purpose, — the one master principle, 
which gives, as it were, the key-note to the whole 
life. Now a literal equipoise of the character, for 
more than a single moment, is hardly possible. The 
character must, at every moment of a man's exist- 
ence, (even if the preponderance be slight,) be either 
worldly or spiritual ; and, though a man may not be 
able to mark for himself the moment when the scale 
turns, — though, when he undertakes to determine it, 
he may antedate or postdate it, — yet it can hardly be 
otherwise than a moment distinctly marked by the 
divine eye. 

IV. Our next question is : Is regeneration an indel- 
ible process ; or can those^ who have been born again^ 
so far fall back into sinful habits^ as to forfeit the 
blessings of the Christian covenant ? To this question I 
would reply, that the regenerate state is in itself a 
most hopeful one, and that it includes within itself 
great prospect and promise of perseverance, and even 
abundant reason to expect restoration from the first 
stages of declension and backsliding. The change 
of character, which it implies, is a truly momentous 
one. The heart is new ; the life is new. The regen- 
erate person has entered upon a new and attractive 
sphere of being, — has joined himself to a society, 
which can hardly fail to draw him constantly heaven- 



REGENERATION. 



159 



ward, — has commenced the discharge of duties, 
which are sanctifying in their very nature, — has 
begun to enjoy pleasures, which never cloy, but 
which sustain the constant desire to seek them yet 
again. The regenerate person has of course begun to 
lead a life of prayer ; and there is abundant ground 
for the hope, that he, who has felt the comfort and 
joy of prayer, will not abandon it, and, while he 
still maintains the habit of prayer, he cannot fall back 
into a life of sin. The regenerate person has learned 
to look at objects, events, and his fellow beings, in 
their spiritual relations and aspects ; and points of 
view once acquired we do not readily lose, so that 
there is strong hope that he, the eyes of whose under- 
standing have once been opened, will not close them 
again. Above all, the regenerate person is the sub- 
ject of peculiar aid and guidance from above, which 
will not be lightly or capriciously withdrawn, but can 
be forfeited only by long continued negligence. And, 
even when the regenerate person has once departed 
widely from the Christian covenant, or begun to wax 
cold and careless, he has, in his past experience of 
the blessedness of God's service, remembrances to 
smite him through with godly sorrow, and to call him 
back to the fold, from which he is wandering. There 
will be, in the recollection of times of perfect religious 
peace and reconciliation, a voice breathing the senti- 
of our beautiful hymn : — 

' What peaceful hours T once enjoyed ! 

How sweet their memory still ! 
But they have left an aching void 

The world can never fill.' 



160 



REGENERATION. 



And, Stung with the memory of a peace once his, now 
shut out from his soul, there is hope that he will lift 
the cry : — 

* Return, O holy Dove, return, 

Sweet messenger of rest ; 
I hate the sins that made thee mourn, 

And drove thee from my breast. 

' The dearest idol I have known, 

Whate'er that idol be. 
Help me to tear it from thy throne. 

And worship only thee.' 

Thus true is the doctrine of the perseverance of the 
saints to our reasonable hope, with regard to those, 
who have once been inwardly renewed. But this 
doctrine, as a positive, arbitrary, unbending dogma, 
without abatement or exception, is false, ensnaring, 
and dangerous. It is opposed to reason, experience, 
and Scripture ; and, by creating a fatal consciousness 
of security, it does more than anything else can, to 
make itself false in individual cases. Very many fall, 
because they feel so sure that they can never fall. 
Very many continue in sin, because they know that 
they have once been regenerated, and they feel assured 
that, whatever they do, they cannot fail of heavenly 
blessedness. But there is nothing in the religious 
character to make it intrinsically ineffaceable. As it 
can be kept strong and growing only by exercise unto 
godliness^ so it may be frittered away by lack of 
exercise. 

Moreover, the Scriptures refer so often to the pos- 
sibility of apostacy on the part of the regenerate, that 



REGENERATION. 



161 



it fills me with unfeigned surprise, that it should ever 
have been regarded as impossible, by any, who profess 
to take the Bible for their standard of doctrine. How 
constantly are the saints exhorted to steadfastness and 
perseverance, all which exhortations are foolish and 
absurd, if the saints cannot fall away. St. Paul 
could surely have had no doubt of his own regenera- 
tion ; and yet he speaks of his diligent self-discipline 
and mortification of the flesh, — 'lest that by any 
means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
should be a cast-away.'^ St. Paul is addressing re- 
generate persons, when he says, ' Grieve not the holy 
spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of 
redemption. 't The writer to the Hebrews, so far 
from saying that the regenerate cannot fall away, ex- 
pressly speaks of the impossibility^ ( by which we are 
to understand, I suppose, the extremest difficulty,) of 
renewing again unto repentance those who fall away^ 
after they have been ' once enlightened, and have 
tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made 
partakers of the holy spirit, and have tasted of the 
good word of God, and the powers of the world to 
come.' J 

V. We now arrive at the question : By tvhat 
agency is regeneration effected ? By God's, or man's ? 
I reply, by both. The true doctrine is implied in 
that text of St. Paul : Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in 
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. '§ It 

* 1 Corinthians ix. 27. t Ephesians iv. 30. 

• t Hebrews vi. 4-6. § Philippians ii. 12, 13. 

14* 



162 



REGENERATION. 



used to be a mooted question in theology, whether 
God or man must take the first step in man's regen- 
eration. But it is almost too foolish a question to 
discuss, and one, which a child ought to be able to 
answer from his first catechism. For has not God 
himself, by his own infinite mercy, forever barred out 
such an inquiry as this ? Has he not drawn nigh to 
us, from the very dawn of our moral being, in the 
countless blessings and healing sorrows of his provi- 
idence, — in the religious aspects and voices of na- 
ture, — in the teachings, warnings, promises of the 
gospel, — in the example, the love, the reconciling 
blood of Christ, — in secret visitings of his spirit, 
which we all have felt, which we cannot escape or 
shut out, and in which, in what countless instances has 
he verified to each of our hearts the words, ' Behold, 
I stand at the door and knock ! ' Yes. And in every 
step that we take on the path to eternal life, is the 
Father with us, keeping our feet from falling, and our 
souls from death. We enter the outward world, and 
gain bodily strength and vigor, only because in him we 
live, and move, and have our being, — because he sus- 
tains this marvellous machine in tension and activity, 
keeps in tune the harp of thousand strings, supplies 
nature's waste from his own fountain of life, propels 
the warm current through every limb and every vein. 
Equally, it seems to me, does the soul's true life flow 
unceasingly from him. From him proceed all holy 
desires, good counsels, and just works. His working 
in us is the essential condition of our spiritual health 
and activity. 



REGENERATION. 



163 



Yet, in regeneration, our will nfiust consent with his. 
There must be a determined choice and effort on our 
part. The vows of penitence, the meditations on our 
Father's and our Saviour's love, the holy resolutions, 
the heavenward strivings, by which we are to be born 
again, must flow from our own free will and purpose ; 
nor can we be inwardly renewed, without our own ear- 
nest and dihgent effort, our own voluntary prayers, our 
own free-will offering, and cheerful, whole-hearted con- 
secration of body, soul, and life to our Master's ser- 
vice. Aid from God we shall indeed have, and must 
have, at every step. It will be in the strength that he 
gives us, that we shall endure and conquer. But God's 
aid, essential and powerful as it is in the spiritual life, 
is not irresistible. God helps us, as a judicious father 
helps a child, whom he is unwilling to control, while he 
earnestly desires that he should decide and act rightly. 
Such a father gives his son kind advice, surrounds him 
with good examples and influences, furnishes him with 
the best materials of judgment ; but still the son may, 
from waywardness or passion, decide and act contrary 
to the father's wishes. Of this nature are the influ- 
ences of the divine spirit for man's regeneration, — 
influences, which may be grieved and quenched, or 
which may be made to bring forth fruit unto everlasting 
life. 

VI. We next ask : What evidences of regeneration 
in ourselves ought we to deem sufficient ? This ques- 
tion it is the object of so much of my preaching to 
answer, that I the less regret the narrow space, in 
which it must be answered now. In general terms, 



164 



REGENERATION. 



spirituality of character is the sign that we have been 
born again. ' That which is born of the spirit, is 
spirit.' If we are regenerated, we shall look at things 
in their spiritual aspects ; and shall regard our spiritual 
relations and duties as of paramount importance. We 
shall delight in prayer. We shall habitually feel the 
presence of God, and shall refer our thoughts, words, 
and deeds, to his will and law, as to their only standard. 
Religious subjects, duties, and services, will always be 
welcome, and never a weariness or a burden. But the 
supreme law of the spiritual life is love^ — love to God, 
— love to every child of God, — love to God with the 
heart and soul, the mind and strength, — love to man, 
tender, constant, forbearing, forgiving, ready to impart, 
glad to bless, rejoicing with the happy, sympathizing 
with the afflicted, showing mercy to all. 

In the regenerate life also, we are united to Christ, 
as the branch to the vine. Our virtues grow from his. 
Our spiritual graces twine themselves about him as their 
tree of life. There is a conscious reception of light 
and aid from his example and his spirit. We shall be 
able to say of this sin, ' I have striven against it, be- 
cause my Master forbade it ; ' and of that virtue, ' I 
have labored to acquire it, because I found it in the 
Lord Jesus;' and of our general tone of character and 
habits of life, ' I am what I am, because I have been 
with Jesus, and learned of him, and humbly striven to 
follow him in all things.' 

These hints may supply heads of self-examination, 
which I have not time to draw out as I could wish ; 
and they must needs recal to my stated hearers the 



REGENERATION. 



165 



tests of Christian character, which they are wont to 
hear set forth from this pulpit. 

VIL I hasten to our closing inquiry. What evi- 
dence of regeneration should we seek in others^ as a 
prerequisite to Christian fellowship ? None but the 
all-seeing God can tell with certainty, who are the 
regenerate, and who the unsanctified. In the Christian 
church, the wheat and the tares must grow together till 
the harvest. Therefore, while, in judging of our own 
spiritual state, we should make our standard of Chris- 
tian character as high as possible, in determining with 
whom we will hold Christian fellowship, we should so 
shape it, as to include even ' the least in the kingdom 
of heaven.' By making our terms of fellowship thus 
broad, we may indeed embrace some, w^hose names 
are not written in the book of hfe ; but we had better 
treat as Christian brethren ten false pretenders to the 
name, than reject one, whom Christ has received. 

Let us beware how we make our own creed, or 
ritual, or views of duty on any points that admit of 
question, a standard for our brethren. On these 
points we are as liable to err as they are ; and they 
have the same right to condemn us, that we have to 
condemn them. But there are two things, which we 
may expect to find in the subjects of Christian regen- 
eration, and the lack of either of which would compel 
us, however reluctantly, to doubt the Christian char- 
acter of one, who on any ground sought to be recog- 
nized as a Christian. One of these relates to profes- 
sion ; the other to practice. 

1. The first is a willingness to own Christ as an 



166 



REGENERATION. 



authoritative teacher, and as the one appointed Me- 
diator between God and man, and, as a consequence of 
this, habitual reverence for his name, his gospel, and 
everything that he has made sacred. Christian fellow- 
ship is a fellowship in Christ, and not out of him. If, 
therefore, he be disowned, his name blasphemed, and 
his gospel set at nought, by any men of virtuous life 
and conversation, we may and should give them full 
credit for whatever virtues they manifest, and whatever 
good they do ; but it is absurd to think of them as sub- 
jects for Christian fellowship. Were we, on account 
of their good lives, to call them Christians, we should 
be conferring a name, which is not ours to give, but 
can be given only to those, for whom it is appointed by 
the Father ; and he surely cannot have appointed it 
for any, by whom it is despised or undervalued. 

2. The other essential prerequisite to Christian 
recognition, is a general outward conformity to the un- 
questioned rules of duty, — a generally virtuous life 
and conversation. We are not to look for perfection 
in others, while we are conscious of falling far short of 
it ourselves. But we may expect in those, who are 
renewed through the grace of Christ, some good degree 
of conformity to his image and spirit. 

But, after all, the best rule is, for us to be as close 
and thorough as we can be, in the judgment of our 
own hearts ; but always to bring to the judgment of 
another's character that charity, which ^ thinketh no 
evil, believeth all things, and hopeth all things.' 

I trust that this discussion, though in the form of a 
doctrinal exposition, may not pass, without leading my 



REGENERATION. 



167 



hearers to diligent self-examination as to the momen- 
tous question of their own regeneration. Of this ques- 
tion, my friends, nothing can take precedence. The 
time is hastening on for each of us, and for some is 
doubtless near, when it will be echoed in the thunder- 
tones of approaching death. Let it be put and an- 
swered by each of us before he sleeps ; and, whatever 
our amiable traits of character, whatever our endow- 
ments of mind and heart, if not sanctified by Christian 
faith and the spirit of ' self-consecration, let us hear, as 
from the lips of him, whose words are God's eternal 
truth, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God.'^ 



t 

I 



LECTURE VIL 



THE ATONEMENT. 

2 CORINTHIANS V. 18, 19. 

THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION, TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, 
RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF. 

The atonement will be the subject of the two 
remaining lectures of this course. I commence with a 
few remarks on the word atonement^ and its use in the 
Scriptures. Atonement is at-one-ment^ reconcihation, 
the bringing together, or at one^ of those who have 
been at variance. It is a word employed but once in 
our translation of the New Testament ; and that is in 
the following passage : ' If, when we were enemies, we 
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much 
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 
And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received 
the atonement ihdLi is, the reconciliation just spoken 
of.* The same Greek word occurs elsewhere, but is 
rendered reconciliation. It is the word so rendered in 
our text. The word atonement is often used in our 

* Romans v. 10, 11. 

15 



170 



THE ATONEMENT. 



translation of the Old Testament ; but there it simply 
means ritual purification^ and can have no reference 
to reconciliation between God and man, since atonement 
is said to have been made for inanimate objects, as for 
the altar, and for a house infected with leprosy. The 
Hebrew word rendered to atone^ denotes to cover or 
smear over ; and it no doubt came to imply purification^ 
from the ceremonial smearing of the persons or things 
purified, with oil or with blood. 

Atonement, reconciliation between God and man, 
through Christ, through his death, is the doctrine of all 
Christian behevers. The question at issue is. Which 
party did Christ reconcile to the other, — God to man, 
or man to God ? Some suppose that Christ died to 
reconcile God to man, to appease the divine wralh, 
to make God willing or able to forgive man's guilt. 
Others maintain that God never was, and never can be 
alienated from his human family, so as to need atone- 
ment ; but that it is man, alienated from God by sin, 
that needs and receives the atonement, and that Christ 
lived and died to reconcile guilty man to a Father of 
unchangeable love. The latter is the view, which you 
have always heard from this pulpit. The former is the 
theory of that branch of the church called Calvinistic. 
The Calvinistic doctrine, stated more in detail, is this. 
God has affixed to every sin, nay, to original sin de- 
rived from Adam, the penalty of eternal torments. 
God's justice forbids him to forgive man's iniquity, 
unless this penalty be in some way satisfied. Christ 
interposed, and took upon himself the weight of agony 
and torment, which those who are forgiven would other- 



THE ATONEMENT. 



171 



wise have borne, and, because he thus suffered in their 
stead, they go clear. This doctrine, with shght modi- 
fications, is held by the majority of our Christian pubhc. 
One of these modifications introduces the idea of impu- 
ted righteousness, maintaining that, as men, though per- 
sonally guiltless, are made sinners by the imputation of 
Adam's guilt, so those, who are saved, though person- 
ally destitute of hohness, are made holy by the right- 
eousness of Christ imputed to them. This is a notion 
so opposed to common sense, so self-contradictory in 
its terms, and so generally laid aside by its former ad- 
vocates, as to claim only the most cursory notice. 
Another modification of the popular doctrine is, that, 
though Christ may not have suffered the full amount of 
what was due to man's guilt, yet what he suffered was 
accepted by the Father as a full equivalent for what 
man ought to have suffered. But the main idea of this 
doctrine, in all its modifications, is substitution^ vicari- 
ousnessj one's standing in another's stead, and bearing 
what he ought to have borne. 

The first remark to be made upon this doctrine is, 
that it is nowhere distinctly stated in the Scriptures. 
This its advocates admit. They maintain that it is 
strongly implied in several scattered texts in the apos- 
tolic epistles, and in one or two in the prophet Isaiah. 
But is it conceivable that a doctrine of such infinite 
moment should not have been explicitly stated in the 
Bible ? It is, I think, admitted on all sides, that a vi- 
carious atonement was not distinctly taught by our 
Saviour in any of his recorded discourses, and that, 
when he died, his immediate followers were as ignorant 



172 



THE ATONEMENT. 



of the purpose of his death, as they were at his nativ- 
ity. But why was this ? He often spoke of his ap- 
proaching dissolution ; why did he make no disclosure 
of its purpose ? By the statements, which he did make, 
he manifestly failed to reconcile his disciples to his de- 
parture from them ; but, had he once told them that 
God could not pardon the penitent without his dying, 
they would have understood that it was expedient for 
them that he should go away. Nor yet does our Sa- 
viour make any additional disclosure on this point after 
his resurrection. 

The vicarious atonement, one would suppose, must 
have formed, if true, an essential part of the preaching 
of the apostles. But, in the discourses preached by 
Peter and Paul to congregations, that were hstening to 
Christian instruction for the first time, we find not a 
word of this doctrine, now regarded by so many as the 
cardinal point of the gospel scheme. Yet, through these 
discourses, converts were made by thousands ; and 
these, not converts of an hour, but such as ' continued 
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship.' 

Equally little do we find of this doctrine in the 
writings of the Christian fathers of the first three cen- 
turies. The idea of substitution, or of a price paid to 
appease the divine justice, cannot be traced in any of 
their works now extant, though among these works are 
creeds, defences, apologies, and avowed statements of 
the whole Christian system. This fact is admitted, and 
referred to with surprise, by orthodox commentators 
upon the writings of the fathers. Flacius, a learned 
pupil of Luther, says that the Christian writers of the 



THE ATONEMENT. 



173 



primitive age ' discoursed, like philosophers, of the law, 
and its moral precepts, and of the nature of virtue and 
vice ; but they were totally ignorant of man's natural 
corruption, the mysteries of the gospel, and Christ's 
merits.' The same writer, speaking of Eusebius, the 
ecclesiastical historian, (who flourished early in the 
fourth century, and than whom none stood higher in the 
church on the score of learning or authority,) says : ' It 
is a very low and imperfect description, which he gives 
of a Christian, making him only a man, who, by the 
knowledge of Christ and his doctrine, is brought to the 
worship of the one true God, and the practice of sobri- 
ety, righteousness, patience, and other virtues. But he 
has not a word about imputed righteousness.' I cannot 
forbear quoting the well-merited and delicate irony, 
with which Lardner dismisses these passages from Fla- 
cius. ' Poor, ignorant primitive Christians, I wonder 
how they could find the way to heaven. They lived 
near the time of Christ and his apostles. They highly 
valued, and diligently read the holy Scriptures, and 
some of them wrote commentaries upon them ; but 
yet, it seems, they knew little or nothing of their 
religion, though they embraced and professed it with 
the manifest hazard of all earthly good things ; and 
many of them laid down their lives, rather than re- 
nounce it.' 

These considerations certainly furnish a strong pre- 
sumption against the doctrine under discussion, yet can- 
not be regarded as conclusive ; for they have been ad- 
mitted by its most intelligent advocates and defenders. 
15* 



174 



THE ATONEMENT. 



Let US then analyze the doctrine, and see on what foun- 
dation it rests. 

It assumes for its basis the position, that God's law 
annexes eternal punishment to every sin, without refer- 
ence to the repentance or reformation of the sinner. 
This is an idea wholly unsustained by Scripture, and 
supported mainly by fragments of texts, which, quoted 
entire, would imply the opposite doctrine. It is stated 
as the stern, unbending law of God's revealed word, 
' The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' This is indeed a 
part of the law as revealed through Ezekiel. But the 
prophet adds : ' But if the wicked will turn from all 
his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my stat- 
utes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall 
surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions 
that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned 
unto him : in his righteousness that he hath done he 
shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked 
should die ? saith the Lord God : and not that he 
should return from his ways, and live ?'* Now I am 
utterly unable to discern the propriety, or the honesty of 
quoting the first portion of this passage, as the eternal 
moral law of God, and omitting the latter part. All 
through the Old Testament, the promise of pardon to 
the penitent is connected with the denunciation of pun- 
ishment against the sinner. ' If they shall confess 
their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant,' was 
God's uniform declaration to the nation of Israel. The 
whole spirit of the Old Testament towards sinners is 



* Ezekiel xviii. 20 -23. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



175 



expressed in these words of God through Ezekiel : 
' When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die ; 
if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and 
right ; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that 
he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without 
committing iniquity : he shall surely live, he shall not 
die.'* Is it said that this law of pardon had reference 
to the intended sacrifice of Christ, — to ' the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world ? ' This is an 
entirely gratuitous assumption, not only unsustained by 
Scripture, but opposed to certain very plain declara- 
tions of the New Testament, which represent Christ's 
mission as the consequence^ not the cause, of God^s 
forgiving mercy. Such are these texts, which might 
be multiplied indefinitely. ' God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son^ that whosoever believeth 
in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.'f 
* Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
loved us^ and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins. 'J ^ God was in Christy reconciling the world unto 
himself, '§ 

But it is maintained that divine justice forbids the 
pardon of the penitent. Now, by jmtice as applied to 
God, we either mean some attribute, of which we have 
no knowledge ; or else we mean the same attribute, 
which we denominate justice between man and man. 
If the former, then whatever we affirm or deny with 
regard to the divine justice is mere haphazard assertion, 
and one assertion is as good as another. But to my 



* Ezekiel xxxiii. 14, 15. 
? 1 John iv, 10. 



+ John iii. 16, 

§ 2 Corinthians v. 19. 



176 



THE ATONEMENT. 



mind nothing is more certain than this, — that, when 
God reveals himself to mankind as merciful^ and 
holy^ and just^ he means, that he is possessed of those 
attributes, which all men designate, and which good 
men cherish and practice, as mercy, holiness^ and 
justice. Now let me put the question to your hearts 
and consciences, is it unjust to forgive the wrong-doer, 
when he repents ? If my neighbor has done me a 
very great injury, and now repents of it, is it unjust for 
me to forgive him ? You would think me beside myself, 
were I to ask the question seriously, and with regard to 
a case actually in hand. In forgiving my penitent neigh- 
bor, I wrong no one. I give him what I take from no 
one else ; for mercy grows by exercise. I give him 
what I owe him as a fellow-being, and a legitimate object 
of sympathy and charity. If your httle child has been 
disobedient, and is now sorry for it, do you regard it as 
unjust for you to forgive him ? Are you unrighteous, 
because, on account of his regret for his fault and his 
promise of amendment, you forbear the chastisement, 
which the fault persisted in might seem to merit ? No ; 
for you only give to the child from that fountain of 
paternal love, which God caused to well up within 
you for the child's benefit. You give the child 
what is rightfully his own. No more is God unjust 
in extending free, unpurchased mercy to his penitent 
child. 

Still farther, I contend that divine justice not only 
admits, but necessarily includes and implies, the for- 
giveness of the penitent sinner. It would be unjust 
lor God not to forgive the contrite. That stern, flinty, 



THE ATONEMENT. 



177 



inexorable vice^ not virtue, which technical theologians 
have been wont to call justice^ is not what they term 
it. Such a counterfeit of justice, if it exist anywhere, 
is to be found with the devil and his angels. True 
justice is the perfection of goodness. It is a goodness, 
which does no wrong, which is impartial, and not a 
respecter of persons, which renders to all their due, 
and which, in every place and relation, discharges the 
appropriate offices of that place or relation. Now God 
is our Father ; and the justice of a father is firm, dis- 
creet, impartial, yet munificent affection. What title 
to the character of a just man could be claimed, think 
you, by that human father, who turned a deaf ear to 
the sincere penitence of his erring son ? To be sure, 
the son could base no claim upon his past merits. But 
the father would owe it to his own nature, to the spon- 
taneous impulses of a paternal heart, to forgive him. 
He would do himself the most outrageous injustice by 
persevering in anger and in vindictive measures. Thus 
is it also with our Father in heaven. Though his 
erring children can build no claim on the ground of 
past merit or obedience, he yet owes to himself to for- 
give them. He would be unjust, false to his own 
nature, were he to despise the sighing of the contrite, 
and the desire of the penitent. He would, in that 
case, withhold from men that, which, though they could 
not claim it on the score of merit, is their rightful due 
as his creatures, as his children. I maintain, then, 
that the forgiveness of the sincere penitent is an essen- 
tial part of the divine justice. As such it is represented 
by the sacred writers. What could be more explicit 



178 



THE ATONEMENT. 



on this point, than St. John's declaration : ' If we con- 
fess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins ? ' ^ 

I next remark, that, if it is inconsistent with the 
divine justice not to forgive the penitent, it is still more 
so, to punish the innocent instead of the guilty. If 
justice has any signification whatever, it certainly in- 
cludes and implies the rendering to each individual, 
and to no other in his stead or for his sake, the good 
or the evil that is his due. Apply the principle of the 
vicarious atonement to human affairs, and see how 
much wrong it would produce, of how much iniquity 
it would be the parent. We will suppose a case. A 
man has been sentenced to the penitentiary for forgery, 
for a term of tioenty years. At the expiration of ten 
years, it is represented to the chief magistrate, that, at 
an early period of his confinement, he showed decided 
marks of deep contrition, that his conduct has been 
without exception exemplary, and that he will, un- 
doubtedly, if pardoned, be a worthy and valuable 
member of society, in fine, that he is among the fittest 
subjects for executive clemency. The governor says : 
^ Yes ; he surely ought to be pardoned. But the sen- 
tence must be executed. Go then, take him from his 
cell, and immure in his stead, for the next ten years, 
that good man over the way. He has never broken 
the law in any one point. He is the best citizen we 
have ; and there is no other man, by whose imprison- 
ment the majesty of the law can be so well sustained.' 



* 1 John i. 9. 



\ 



THE ATONEMENT. 



179 



Would you not infer, that this magistrate's conscience 
and moral sentiment had been paralyzed ? Would you 
not deem such a procedure the very climax of un- 
righteousness ? Or suppose that one of my children 
had incurred some threatened punishment, but was now 
penitent for the fault, and that the other, an innocent, 
loving little creature, begged to be punished in her 
sister's stead, — you would never afterwards trust my 
judgment in matters of right and wrong, if, even at 
the instance of the child's own compassion, I punished 
the faultless one, and let the guilty go. The native 
instinct of the human heart relucts at the very idea of a 
vicarious penalty, and demands that punishment be 
either remitted, or visited upon the offender in his 
own person. Now it is in the highest degree un- 
becoming and irreverent to ascribe to God a course of 
conduct, which we should reprehend and despise in 
man. 

But it is said, that to forgive the sin of the penitent, 
without laying its punishment on some other person, 
encourages sin. I have never been able to see the 
force of this objection to the doctrine of the free, un- 
purchased mercy of God. And, if it has any force, 
it belongs no less to the doctrine of vicarious atone- 
ment, than to that of free pardon ; for, in either case, 
repentance is the only condition required of the sinner. 
Nor can he be restrained from sin by an unwillingness 
to add to the sufferings of his substitute ; for, accord- 
ing to the popular doctrine, the punishment, and that 
an infinite one, has been already borne, and conse- 
quently cannot be increased by any additional amount 



180 



THE ATONEMENT. 



of guilt. To my mind, forgiveness on the sole condi- 
tion of repentance holds out a premium to goodness, 
not to sin. It keeps the prize of holiness within sight 
and reach of the sinner at every pause of his guilty 
career, v^henever conscience wakes and passion sleeps. 
It opens, from every corner in his path of sin, cross 
paths to the road, from which he has wandered. It 
cries at every step, ' Turn ye, turn ye ; for why will 
ye die ? ' It seems to me to imply the strangest con- 
fusion of ideas, to maintain that sin is encouraged by 
promises, which can be of no effect, till sin is repented 
of and forsaken. 

But we are told, that the burdened conscience 
needs a vicarious atonement, and can feel secure of 
forgiveness, only when it can behold its punishment 
laid upon another's shoulders. That this feeling is a 
very frequent element in religious experience, I have no 
doubt. I beHeve that very many burdened consciences 
can find relief only through a vicarious atonement. 
But this state of feeling is created by the very doctrine, 
which it craves. Men feel thus, when under convic- 
tion of sin, because they have been taught to regard 
the Almighty as unwilling or unable to forgive sin, with- 
out the substituted suffering of another, — because they 
have never had the infinite mercy of God presented to 
them as a ground of trust and hope, — - because they 
have always had associations of wrath and vengeance 
connected with him, and thus have been constrained to 
look to the Son for that forgiveness, for which they 
have been forbidden to go to the Father. But, where 
the Father's forgiving love is set forth as full, large, 



THE ATONEMENT. 



181 



and free, the sin-burdened conscience can cast its 
burden upon him, though in utter self-reproach and 
self-abasement, yet without a shadow of doubt or fear. 

I have thus far reasoned, as if the popular dogma of 
the atonement were consistent with the confessedly 
Scriptural doctrine of the remission or forgiveness of 
sins. But it is not so. If the one be true, the other 
cannot be. If you owe me a sum of money, and 
your neighbor pays it to me in your stead, there is no 
remission of the debt on my part. If you injure me, 
and I punish your son or brother in your stead, I exer- 
cise no forgiveness. Vicarious punishment is not 
pardon ; but the two are at opposite poles of the moral 
universe. If God has taken full punishment upon 
Christ, if he has exacted from him the full price, he has 
put it for ever out of his own power to forgive sin, — he 
has blotted the very idea of pardon out of his book, — 
he has made the remission of sin, impossible. If 
Christ has paid my debt, I owe nothing. If Christ 
has borne my punishment, I am no long hable to 
punishment. I therefore can no longer be the subject 
of pardon, or of the remission of sins. But if there is 
any one doctrine, that gives the key-note to the whole 
New Testament, it is that of the forgiveness of sins ; 
and the dogma, which renders this impossible, can have 
no place in the counsel of God. 

We might, were it necessary, show the absurdity 
of the popular notion of the vicariousness of Christ's 
sufferings, by a still farther analysis of the ideas, which 
it includes or implies. It is a doctrine held only by 
Trinitarians ; and to them the question may be fairly 
16 



182 



THE ATONEMENT. 



put, How can God punish God, or be punished by 
God ? How can God pay a penalty to God, or cancel 
a debt due to God ? This difficuhy was felt by some 
of the early advocates of the doctrine under considera- 
tion ; and, to obviate it, they decided, (and such was 
the general belief of the church for several centuries,) 
that the price or penalty, paid by Christ, was paid to 
the devil, in lieu of the souls which Christ ransomed 
from his power. 

We might also ask, how is it in the nature of things 
possible, that Christ, an innocent, holy being, could 
have borne the punishment due to human guilt ? For 
in what does that punishment consist ? It consists in the 
forfeiture of the divine favor, and of the sympathy and 
companionship of the good, in the stings of an evil 
conscience, in the undying goadings of depraved desire 
and unholy passion, in a state of protracted opposition 
to the divine government and disobedience of the 
divine law. It is a burden, which, from its very 
nature, could have been borne by no innocent being, 
least of all, by a being perfect, divine, and infinite. 

Is it said, that, in intense physical suffering, Christ 
bore the full equivalent of these inward torments due 
to the sins of the whole world ? We ask, when ; 
where ? We read, indeed, of the agony of Gethse- 
mane. But that, though intense and awful, was but 
for a brief season, and was sustained with a spirit so 
full of submission and of filial piety, as to make such 
woe, even if protracted through eternity, a heaven, 
compared with the torment of an unreconciled and 
rebellious soul. Then, at the crucifixion, there was 



THE ATONEMENT. 



183 



the one exclamation, ' My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ? ' This, there is indeed some rea- 
son to suppose, was designed simply as a citation of 
the psalm commencing with these words, which con- 
tains many things applicable to Jesus. But if, (as 
seems to me more probable,) this exclamation was an 
expression of the feeling of the moment, it cannot have 
implied, that he deemed himself deserted by him, to 
whom, a moment afterwards, he said in the calm con- 
fidence of a child, ' Father, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit ; ' but it must have had reference to those 
outward circumstances of tribulation, which we are 
accustomed to call the hidings of God'^s countenance^ 
so that it must be understood to mean, ' My God, why 
hast thou, in thine inscrutable wisdom, seen fit to leave 
me under such a weight of torture and of contumely ? ' 
But, with the exception of the agony in Gethsemane, 
and the inference that might be drawn, (wrongly, as I 
think,) from that momentary exclamation on the cross, 
the whole scene of the betrayal and crucifixion is so 
far from presenting the picture of one, who was endur- 
ing the eternal suffering of myriads compressed into a 
few hours, that it gives us rather the idea of a victory 
over suffering and death, so entirely won before the 
hour came, as to leave our Saviour's spirit, with but a 
passing cloud, calm, free, unburdened, elastic, full of 
heavenly communings, and consciously in the bosom of 
the Father. But, supposing the popular doctrine of 
Christ's vicarious suffering true, could such an incon- 
ceivable weight of anguish have been laid upon him, 
without having left, in the record of those hours, traces 



184 



THE ATONEMENT. 



of an agony so unearthly, so infinitely surpassing the 
previous imagination of beholders, that the cry of the 
suffering God-man would have thrilled through the 
universe, and the horror and despair of the appalling 
scene would have seemed like the opening of the bot- 
tomless pit, beneath the feet of those that stood by ? 
What ! A thousand times ten thousand, nay, un- 
counted millions of eternal, and therefore infinite, 
burdens of the most intense and hopeless torment of 
body and soul, and all these laid upon Christ's human 
nature, which is represented as finite, — is there any 
trace, or shadowing forth of this, anywhere in the 
sacred history ? Calvin, perceiving this difficulty, 
maintained that Christ spent the interval between his 
death and his resurrection in hell, suffering there the 
utmost possible measure of torment and agony ; and, if 
the doctrine of a vicarious atonement be true, this sup- 
position is indispensably necessary, to reconcile it with 
the narrative of the evangelists. 

We might also argue against the idea of a vicarious 
atonement from its manifest inconsistency with every 
statement of doctrine or duty, with every discourse or 
parable in the New Testament, which is capable of 
being considered in connection with it. Take, for 
instance, the parable of the master, whose servant 
owed him a thousand talents, — a parable, which was 
expressly designed to illustrate the divine forgiveness, 
and which we cannot suppose the great Teacher to 
have so framed, as to exclude the essential conditions 
of forgiveness. Insert in this parable the vicarious 
atonement, — suppose the master to exact full payment 



THE ATONEMENT. 185 

of some other servant, — what a heartless mockery do 
you make of the words, ' He freely forgave him the 
debt ! ' 

To take another instance, the parable of the prodigal 
son was undoubtedly designed to exhibit God's mercy 
to the penitent. Insert in this the idea of vicarious 
punishment. Suppose the parable to read as follows, 
(and such must be its actual import, if the doctrine 
under discussion be true.) ' And when the Father 
saw the wanderer returning with every mark of contrite 
sorrow, he called the elder son, who had always served 
him, nor trangressed at any time his commandments, 
and said. My son, my first-born and best beloved, here 
is thy lost brother coming back again, and begging for 
the bread of my house ; but the word has gone forth 
from my lips, that the child, who once leaves my 
house, shall never return ; and I know not how to 
remit this sentence, unless thou wilt take upon thyself 
the shame, and w^oe, and suffering due to his wayward- 
ness.' Who does not perceive, that, with this gloss, 
the parable loses all its worth and beauty ? Nay, had 
it been thus written, instead of being oftener read, and 
more attractive, than any other portion of the Bible, it 
would have been almost repulsive enough, to have 
sunk into neglect and oblivion the gospel that con- 
tained it. 

I might refer you, in this connection, to the petition 
in our Lord's prayer, ' Forgive our debts, as we 
forgive our debtors.' One, who believes in the vicari- 
ous sufferings of Christ, cannot use this petition with 
sincerity ; for he hopes to be forgiven in a very different 
16* 



186 



THE ATONEMENT. 



way from that, in which he knows it to be his duty to 
forgive. God's forgiveness is often held forth in the 
New Testament, as a measure and an example for 
man's forgiveness. Upon what an appalling career of 
wrong and crime should we enter, were we to make 
God's forgiveness on account of the substituted suffer- 
ings of the innocent, the measure and example for our 
own ! 

I next remark, that the doctrine of Christ's vicarious 
suffering represents God as a changeable being, — as 
indisposed at first to show mercy, but made placable 
by the death of Christ. Take, for instance, the senti- 
ment of one of Dr. Watts's hymns, much used in our 
Calvinistic churches, in which, speaking of God's 
throne, he employs the following terrific language : — 

* Once 't was a seat of dreadful wrath, 

And shot devouring flame ; 
Our God appear 'd consuming fire, 

And vengeance was his name. 

' Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood. 

That calm'd his frowning face. 
That sprinkled o'er the burning throne. 

And turned the wrath to grace.' 

Oh when I have heard these words read or sung, the 
image, that they have brought to my mind, has been 
the farthest possible from that of the Father God, of 
whom Jesus said, ' He so loved the world that he sent 
his Son.' They have, on the other hand, placed 
before me the semblance of a blood-thirsty fiend, at 
first ravening for his prey, and to be approached with 
safety, only when satiated with carnage. But has he. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



187 



whose words are, ' I am Jehovah, I change not,' 
indeed sustained such an entire revolution of disposition 
and character ? So says the theology of the schools. 
So says not the New Testament, which never represents 
Christ's mission and death as the cause of the Father's 
love, but always as its fruit and pledge. Indeed, it is 
to my mind a conclusive argument against a vicarious 
atonement, that, wherever, in the New Testament, 
God is named in connection with the mediation and 
death of Christ, he is spoken of, not as the object of 
Christ's mission and atonement, but as its author^ and 
as having originated it in love to men, that he might 
draw them to himself 

But it is urged by the advocates of the popular 
doctrine, that Christ's death is often spoken of in the 
Scriptures as a sacrifice. This is indeed the case ; 
and I know of no term, which could have been more 
naturally and properly applied to the death of Christ, 
than this. His death was a sacrifice offered for the 
redemption of man. This, no Christian doubts. The 
question is, was it a vicarious sacrifice ? That it was 
not, would appear from the striking, yet neglected fact, 
that, in the Scriptures, Christ is oftener compared to a 
sacrifice^ ivhich ivas not even a sin-offerings namely ^ to 
the paschal lamh^ than to any other part of the Jewish 
ritual. He is frequently called the Lamb^ also, our 
passover. The figure is drawn out in full by St. Paul 
in the following text : ' Christ our passover is sacrificed 
for us : therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old 
leaven, neither with the leaven of mahce and wicked- 
ness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and 



188 



THE ATONEMENT. 



truth.'* The passover was a commemorative festival, 
by which the Hebrews celebrated their deliverance 
from Egyptian bondage ; and the paschal lamb was the 
chief food of this anniversary supper. Christ in his 
death was likened to this lamb, because there clustered 
about his death associations of deliverance from a worse 
than Egyptian bondage, from the slavery of doubt, and 
fear, and sin ; and also, because, in the Christian festival, 
designed to supersede the passover, bread, emblematic 
of the Saviour's body broken on the cross, took the 
place of the paschal lamb. 

The vicarious atonement has been professedly sus- 
tained by analogies drawn from the Old Testament ; 
but, in point of fact, there was no such thing as vicarious 
suffering under the Jewish law. Most of the Jewish 
offerings and sacrifices were not sin-offerings ; but 
either thank-offerings, offerings of firstlings and first- 
fruits designed chiefly for the subsistence of the priests 
and Levites, or offerings in acknowledgment of those 
unintended omissions or transgressions of the ritual law, 
to which no moral guilt was attached. Moreover, very 
many of the sacrifices were bloodless ones, offerings of 
fine flour, oil, wine, fruit, and grain. And in this 
connection, it is an important and instructive fact, that 
the animal, made typically to bear the sins of the whole 
people, on the great annual day of atonement, was not 
slain. ' The priest shall lay both his hands upon the 
head of the goat, and confess over him all the iniquities 
of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in 



* 1 Corinthians v. 7, 8. 



THE ATONEMENT, 



189 



all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat ; 
and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into 
the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all 
their iniquities unto a land not inhabited : and he shall 
let go the goat in the wilderness.'^ This is the only 
instance in the Old Testament, in which sin is said 
to be laid upon any animal, or in which language seem- 
ing to imply vicariousness or substitution is used in 
connection with any part of the Mosaic ritual ; and, in 
this service, the animal was not made to suffer in any 
form or way. But this was a part of the great annual 
confession-service or remission-service, in which, if 
anywhere, the idea of vicarious suffering must needs 
have been introduced. This idea, however, cannot be 
traced in any portion or feature of the Mosaic dispen- 
sation. 

Sacrifice was, in fact, a symbolical form of worship, 
which all nations have practised in their infancy, and 
which, under the Mosaic law, was regulated and 
sanctioned, as still adapted to the imperfect culture 
and rude habits of the covenant people. Under a 
low state of civilization, sacrifice was an obvious means 
of attesting the sincerity of the religious sentiment. 
It was symbolical prayer or praise. He, who was 
penitent, fined himself in a sin-ofiering. He, who was 
thankful, showed the fervor of his gratitude by setting 
aside from his own use, and consecrating in some form, 
accordant with the notions of his times, a part of that 
wherein God had prospered him. Christ's death bore. 



* Leviticus xvi. 21, 22. 



190 



THE ATONEMENT. 



therefore, a closer analogy to the slaying of the paschal 
lamb, with its glad associations of deliverance and 
divine guidance, than to any other part of the ancient 
ritual ; and we can thus account for the frequency, with 
which the passover furnishes the sacred writers with 
the phraseology employed with reference to the cruci- 
fixion. 

Inasmuch as Christ's death was a sacrifice, whatever 
view we may take of its object or its efficacy, it would 
have been very strange if the sacred writers, who were 
all Jews, had not often employed with reference to it 
the word sacrifice^ and the phrases usually connected 
with that word. But it would have been still more 
strange, and certainly would have authorized the 
suspicion of some peculiar and mysterious signification 
attached to this phraseology, if, employing it with 
reference to the death of Christ, they had used it on no 
other subject. But such is not the case. They have 
used the word sacrifice^ (and connected with it offer 
up and similar phrases,) with reference to a large 
variety of subjects. The following are a few of the 
instances. ' I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that 
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.' ^ ' If I be 
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I 
joy, and rejoice with you all.'f ' I am full, having 
received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent 
from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice accept- 
able, well-pleasing to God.' J 'Let us offer the 
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit 



* Rom. xii. 1. 



t Phil. ii. 17. 



t Phil. iv. 18. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



191 



of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good, 
and to communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices 
God is well pleased.'* 'Ye also, as lively stones, 
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to 
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
Christ. f From these examples, we see that nothing 
like vicarious suffering is implied in the frequent com- 
parison of our Saviour's death to the sacrifices under 
the Jewish ritual. 

Indeed, would we only interpret the sacred writings 
by the common laws and customs of speech, we should 
be at no loss for the origin of phraseology of the kind 
now under consideration. In figurative language, we 
constantly style beings, whether human or divine, whom 
we revere or love, by the names of objects which we 
peculiarly admire or prize. How frequently are such 
words as gem^ jewels diamond^ applied to valued human 
friends. In like manner, Christ is called in the Scrip- 
tures the morning star^ the temple and the light of 
heaven, and the like. Now a devout Jew would have 
been more likely to have borrowed such titles for the 
Saviour from the revered ritual, under which he had 
been born and educated, than from any other source. 
But the multitude and diversity of such titles, borrowed 
from the Jewish ritual, preclude any doctrinal inference, 
which might be drawn from the use of any one of 
them. He is called not only a sacrifice^ in the sense 
of a slain victim ; but also, ' a sacrifice for a sweet-smell- 
ing savor^^ + that is, an incense-offering, — then again. 



*"Heb. xiii, 15, 16. t 1 Peter ii. 6. t Eph. v. 2. 



192 



THE ATONEMENT. 



the mercy-seat^ ^ (for this, all sound commentators and 
critics admit, is the meaning of the word rendered 
propiliation in the third chapter of the epistle to the 
Romans,) — then, the high priest^ (frequently in the 
epistle to the Hebrews,) — then also the veil between 
the holy place and the holy of holies, f Now all these 
analogies are true, beautiful, instructive, and edifying. 
They all open rich veins of devotional thought and 
feeling, and reflect back upon the Old Testament rays 
of gospel light, which cover it with the glory of the 
New, and shed around it the celestial halo, that encir- 
cled our Saviour's own brows. But you will see at 
once, that, if these analogies had been designed to 
represent doctrinal facts, they could not all have been 
used. If, in a dogmatic point of view, Christ was a slain 
victim, he could not have been also an incense-oflering, 
— if an offering, he could not have been also the mercy- 
seat, on which no offering was laid, — if a sacrifice, he 
could not have been also the high priest, who offered 
sacrifice. These comparisons, which, if anything more 
than figures, clash so harshly with each other, must 
then be regarded as mere images, designed to shadow 
forth, under various aspects, the power, the love, and 
the sufferings of Christ. 

These figures occur chiefly in the epistle to the 
Hebrews, which was WTitten mainly to impress upon 
Jewish minds the spiritual majesty and beauty of 
Christianity. The Jewish converts missed, in Chris- 
tianity, the outward beauty of holinessj to which they 



* Romans iii. 25. 



t Hebrews x. 20. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



193 



had been accustomed, the solemn tread of the priestly 
train, the pompous ceremonial of the great day of 
expiation, the smoke of the daily sacrifice. The wri- 
ter of this epistle aimed to reconcile those, to whom 
he wrote, to the simplicity of the Christian system and 
ritual, by shewing them, that, for everything beautiful 
and glorious in Judaism, Christianity offered something 
greater and more perfect of the same kind. The 
burden of the epistle is : ' God spake to the fathers 
by the prophets ; to us by his Son. Judaism has its 
succession of dying high priests, who must perform the 
same service over again every year ; we have an 
unchangeable high priest, who remains forever^ and 
whose one service and oblation is forever sufficient. 
Under the old dispensation, there was a tabernacle, 
glorious and beautiful, made with hands; ours is a 
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with 
hands.' Thus also, with numerous other particulars. 
If you will take this idea with you in reading the epis- 
tle to the Hebrews, it will give that epistle a harmony 
and consistency, which you may not now, perhaps, be 
able to trace in it ; and you will regard it as the very 
best form, in which Jewish prejudices could have been 
overcome, and the Christian faith of one born a Jew 
could have been concihated or confirmed. This view 
of the epistle will account for much of the phraseology 
commonly quoted in the discussion of the atonement, 
and may prepare us for the consideration of particular 
texts upon this subject, to which I shall invite you in 
the next lecture. 

My hour is fully spent ; and I have spent it in 
17 



194 



THE ATONEMENT, 



negjations, which I dishke to do, when it can be 
avoided. But, on account of the tenacity with which 
many chng to the view, against which I have been 
contending, I have deemed it necessary to give it as 
thorough a discussion as possible, before presenting 
that view of the atonement, which seems to me both 
rational. Scriptural, and full of instruction and edifica- 
tion. None can attach a higher efficacy than I would, 
to the cross and death of Christ ; but I believe, (as I 
shall attempt to show you in the next lecture,) that it is, 
in the language of our text, ' God in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself,' and not Christ reconciling God 
to man. As a sacrifice of love, in which God and 
Christ consent, may the Saviour's atoning blood be 
appHed to our hearts and consciences, so that ' we, 
having received the atonement, may joy in God, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ.' 



LECTURE VIII. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



1 PETER III. 18. 

CHRIST ALSO HATH ONCE SUFFERED FOR SINS, THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, 
THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD. 



In my former lecture on the atonement, I con- 
fined myself chiefly to the obvious considerations 
opposed to the doctrine of our Saviour's vicarious or 
substituted suffering. I shewed you that this doc- 
trine has no place in the recorded teachings of our 
Saviour, of his apostles, or of the early Christian 
fathers ; that the forgiveness of the penitent was always 
a part of God's law ; that the forgiveness of the peni- 
tent is not only consistent with perfect justice, but an 
essential part of justice ; that Christ's vicarious suffer- 
ings destroy the doctrine of pardon, inasmuch as there 
can be no pardon, where the full penalty is paid ; and 
that, so far from being an encouragement to sin, the 
free forgiveness of the penitent, and of those only, is 
the surest inducement to goodness. I then spoke of 
the absurdity of maintaining, as our Trinitarian brethren 
do, that God can punish God, or can be punished 
by God. I then shewed you, that there are no traces, 



196 



THE ATONEMENT. 



in the gospel history, of the infinite weight of agony- 
said to have been laid upon our Saviour. I next ex- 
hibited the inconsistency of the vicarious atonement 
with some of our Saviour's principal statements of 
religious doctrine, — then too, with the immutability of 
the divine attributes. I then took up the frequent com- 
parison of our Saviour to the Jewish sacrifices, on 
which rests perhaps the most frequently urged argument 
in favor of the vicariousness of his death. I shewed 
you that the Jewish sacrifices were not vicarious ; that 
Christ is more frequently compared to the paschal 
lamb, which was not even a sin-offering, than to any 
other part of the Jewish ritual ; that comparisons with 
reference to his death are drawn indifferently from 
every portion of the Jewish ritual, which comparisons, 
if they designate doctrinal truths, are inconsistent with 
each other, and can be harmonized only by supposing 
them mere figures ; and that the word sacrifice^ with its 
corresponding phraseology, is employed with reference 
to a large variety of subjects and persons, other than 
Christ and his death. I now resume the subject ; and 
may tax your patience for an unusual length of time, 
as I am solicitous to complete my discussion of the 
atonement this evening. 

The advocates of the doctrine of vicarious suffer- 
ing allege in its favor certain proof-texts, the principal 
of w^hich we will now pass in cursory review. Many 
of these texts are, to my mind, entirely opposed to the 
doctrine, in behalf of which they are quoted ; for they 
refer to Christ and his death, not as removing the pun- 
ishment of sin, but as taking away sin itself, — an effi- 



THE ATONEMENT. 



197 



cacy, which no Christian denies. Such are these 
texts : ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world.'* ' The blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth us from all sin.' f ' How much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your 
conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? ' J 
These passages cannot imply vicarious punishment ; for 
that does not take away sin, or have any effect upon 
the sinner. — it simply takes away the wrath of God 
and the penalty of his law. The taking away of sin 
is a work, which can be wrought only upon the indi- 
vidual's own soul and character, and with which a 
vicarious atonement has no possible connection. In 
point of fact, there is not a single text in the Bible, in 
which Christ is said to have taken away the punishment 
of men's sins, or to have appeased God's wrath, or to 
have made him propitious. 

I omit now the consideration of those texts, where 
Christ is merely spoken of as a sacrifice; for they 
were sufficiently discussed in the last lecture. I pass 
to the class of texts, in which Christ is said to bear 
men'^s sins. ' Who his own self bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree.'§ In like manner, Isaiah says, 
' Surely he hath borne our griefs^ and carried our sor- 
rows ; ' and, ' The Lord hath laid on him^ (to be thus 
borne,) the iniquity of us aZZ.' |] We fortunately have 
n St. Matthew's gospel an authoritative interpretation 
of this phraseology. It is in the following passage : 

* John i. 29. t 1 John i. 7. t Hebrews ix. 14. 

§ 1 Peter ii. 24. \\ Isaiah iiii. 4, 6. 

17* 



198 



THE ATONEMENT. 



' He cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all 
that were sick ; that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying. Himself took 
our infirmities^ and bare our sicknesses, "^^^ He bore 
them by bearing them off^ by taking them aivay ; for 
no one of course supposes that he assumed the sick- 
nesses, which he cured. In fact, in each of the orig- 
inal languages of the Scriptures, the word, which means 
to lift or bear^ means also, and perhaps full as fre- 
quently, to take off^ or to carry away. 

Another class of texts is of those, in which the word 
ransom is employed. Our Saviour, as reported by 
Matthew and Mark, says : ' Whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your minister : even as the Son 
of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give his life a ransom for many.'f St. Paul 
also says of Christ, that he ' gave himself a ransom for 
all.'f These are the only instances, in which the word 
occurs with reference to Christ. Now the word ren- 
dered ransom undoubtedly means, in its literal sense, 
money paid to the captor for the redemption of a cap- 
tive. Is it contended that the word is used literally 
in the passage just quoted ? Let those, who think 
so, tell us then, who was the captor of men's souls, and 
when and how any sum of money was paid to that 
captor. Do they say that there was no captor, and that 
no money was paid ? Then they must acknowledge, that 
the word is figuratively employed with reference to our 
Saviour. But, if it be figuratively employed, we must 

* Matt. viii. 16, 17. f Matt. xx. 27, 28. Mark x. 44, 45. 

t I Timothy ii. 6. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



199 



look for its interpretation to its figurative use in the 
Bible on other subjects. Now the corresponding word, 
(both the noun and the verb,) is often used in the Old 
Testament with reference to the Israelites, in such a 
way that it can only denote the means or the act of 
deliverance. Thus, in Isaiah, God says to his cove- 
nant people, ' I gave Egypt for thy ransom^''^ by which 
we cannot understand the price paid to those, who held 
the Israelites in captivity ; for Egypt was the very 
power that kept Israel captive, and Egypt could not 
have been given to Egypt, but, on the other hand, was 
utterly subdued and spoiled. The sense obviously is : 
' I gave up Egypt to defeat and humiliation for thy 
deliverance.'^ In like manner says Jeremiah : ' The 
Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from 
the hand of him that was stronger than he,'f that is, 
x\oi paid a price for him, but manifestly delivered him. 
With reference to the Babylonish captivity, the Israel- 
ites are called the ransomed.^ and the ransomed of the 
Lord^ by which is evidently meant, not redeemed by 
the payment of a price ^ but simply delivered. Deliver- 
ance,, then, is the idea attached to the word ransom,^ 
when figuratively employed in the Bible ; and, as it 
cannot be hterally used with regard to our Saviour, I 
have not the slightest doubt, that the word means, as 
used with reference to his mediation, deliverance from 
darkness,, error,, and sin, 

I would next refer to the texts, in which Christians 
are said to be bought with a price. There are two of 



* Isaiah xliii. 3. 



t Jeremiah xxxi. 11. 



200 



THE ATONEMENT. 



these texts. The death of Christ is not spoken of in 
connection with either of them ; and they both stand in 
such a connection, as to shew that it is not the impunity, 
but the allegiance, the service of Christians, that is 
purchased. In one of them, the language is : ' He 
that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are 
bought ivith a price ; be not ye the servants of men,'^ 
that is, by what Christ has done and suffered in your 
behalf, he has purchased your service, — has laid upon 
you an imperative obligation to be the servants of no 
other master. The other text, in which this phrase 
occurs, relates to the duty of self-consecration to God's 
service. ' Know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the holy spirit which is in you, which ye have of 
God, and ye are not your own ? For ye are bought 
tvith a price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and 
in your spirit, which are God's.' f The obvious sense 
of this passage is, ' God, by the spiritual aid and 
grace, which l>e has bestowed upon you, has bought 
your allegiance, — has established an indefeasible claim 
to your service, — has made it your obvious and imper- 
ative duty to live, not as your own, but as his, as his 
in body, soul, and conduct.' 

I next ask your attention to the texts, in which Christ 
is spoken of as a propitiation. They are three. One 
is in the epistle to the Romans. ' Whom God hath 
set forth to be propitiation^ through faith in his blood, 
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to de- 



* 1 Corinthians vii. 22, 23. 



t 1 Corinthians vi. 19, 20. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



201 



clare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might 
be just, and the justifier of him which beheveth in 
Jesus. '"^ This text, as a whole, is certainly opposed 
to the idea of vicarious suffering as the ground of par- 
don ; for ' the remission of sins that are past ' is ex- 
pressly said to be, not through the sufferings of Christ, 
but ' through the forbearance of God,' and Jesus is 
said to be ^ set forth ' or manifested, not to make God 
merciful, but ' to declare ' or exhibit ' his righteous- 
ness.' The word rendered propitiation^ means mercy- 
seat. So say nearly all critics and commentators of 
any authority or value. This is one of the instances, 
in which our Saviour, by one who was born and edu- 
cated a Hebrew of the Hebrews, is compared to a 
prominent portion of the religious apparatus of the 
Jews. The mercy-seat was the lid of the ark of the 
covenant. It was within the holy of holies. Above 
it were the cherubim. Upon it, and between their 
wings, rested, in the day of miracles, the luminous 
cloud, betokening the divine presence. On it was laid 
neither sacrifice nor offering. But, once a year, the 
high priest alone entered the holy of holies, sprinkled 
the blood of victims upon the mercy-seat, offered sup- 
plication for the divine forgiveness of the sins of the 
whole people, and came forth to declare to the assem- 
bled nation God's pardon to the penitent. How appro- 
priately then is Jesus termed the mercy-seat, both as 
the fullest possible manifestation of the divine attri- 
butes, and as the messenger and pledge of the divine 



* Romans iii. 25, 26. 



202 



THE ATONEMENT. 



forgiveness ! But the appropriateness of the compar- 
ison ceases, if you connect with it the idea of vicarious 
punishment. The true meaning of the rich and beau- 
tiful passage now under consideration may, perhaps, be 
discerned from the following paraphrase. ' Whom 
God has set forth as a mercy-seat through faith, [that 
is, a spiritual mercy-seat,] sprinkled, not with the blood 
of victims, but with his own blood, to exhibit or mani- 
fest in his own example the righteousness which he 
[God] requires, (for such was the forbearance of God, 
that, instead of visiting men's sins with desolating judg- 
ments, he sent his Son to take away sin,) to manifest 
in our own times the righteousness that God requires, 
that God might be just, might still adhere to that law, 
by which only the penitent are pardoned, and yet, that, 
through the beauty of Christ's example and the recon- 
ciling power of his cross, many might be led to repent- 
ance and a holy life, and might thus be accounted as 
righteous in his sight.' 

The other two passages, in which the word propitia- 
tion is used, are these : ' If any man sin, we have an 
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 
and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for 
ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. '^ 
' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
our sins.'t In these texts the Greek word is not the 
same as that used in the text last under discussion ; but 
it is a very similar word, derived from the same verb. 



* 1 John ii. 1, 2. 



t 1 John iv. 10. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



203 



It is the word employed in the Septuagint to designate 
the sin-offerings under the Jewish ritual ; and this I 
suppose to be its meaning as used by St. John. These 
texts then are instances of yet another of the compari- 
sons, so numerous in the New Testament, of Jesus and 
his death to features and portions of the religious cere- 
monial of the Jews. In my last lecture, I shewed you 
that the Jewish sacrifices were not vicarious ; and, 
this being the case, the comparison of our Saviour 
to one of those sacrifices can be of no weight as 
an argument for the vicariousness of his atonement. 

There are two or three single texts, which now de- 
mand our notice. One, which claims a passing com- 
ment on account of the frequency with which it is 
quoted, though it has no connection with the subject, is 
this : ' Without shedding of blood is no remission,'* — 
not, of sins^ as it is usually quoted ; for the sentence 
relates to the furniture of the tabernacle, which was of 
course incapable of sin. The word rendered remis- 
sion^ means letting go. The whole passage is : ' He, 
[Moses,] sprinkled hkewise with blood both the taber- 
nacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost 
all things are by the law purged with blood ; and with- 
out shedding of blood is no remmion,' that is, nothing 
is let go^ is left, without being sprinkled whh blood, — 
the simple statement of a well known fact in the Jewish 
economy, which an ignorant or careless person may 
indeed cite as referring to the death of Christ, but 
which I see not how a bibhcal scholar or a theologian 



* Hebrews ix. 22. 



204 



THE ATONEMENT, 



could honestly quote as teaching one thing or another 
with regard to it. 

Another passage is : ' He hath made hini to be sin 
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him.' ^ I know of no commen- 
tator, who does not make sin here to denote a sin-offer- 
ing. Among those, who give this exposition, I would 
mention Doddridge, McKnight, and Scott, all names 
of approved orthodoxy. Says McKnight on this 
verse, and with perfect truth, ' There are many pas- 
sages in the Old Testament where sin signifies a sin- 
offering. Thus, Hosea iv. 8. They (the priests) 
eat up the sin (that is, the sin-offerings) of my people. 
In the New Testament, hkewise, the word sin hath the 
same signification, Hebrews ix. 26, 28; xiii. 11.' 
The apostle's assertion then is, ' God has made him, 
who was sinless, to be a sin-offering for us, that we 
through him might be made righteous or holy.' Now, 
unless it can be proved that the sin-offerings under the 
Jewish dispensation were vicarious, the comparison of 
Christ to these sacrifices cannot indicate the vicarious- 
ness of his sufferings. 

Another text, on which some reliance is placed, is 
this : ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, being made a curse for us ; for it is written. Cursed 
is every one that hangeth on a tree.'f The phrase, 
being made a curse for us^ many regard as denoting, 
becoming accursed of God for our sakes^ that is, bear- 
ing his wrath and indignation due to the guilt of man. 



* 2 Corinthians v. 27. 



t Galatians iii. 13. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



205 



But, on this point, I will quote a part of McKnight's 
note on the passage, simply saying, that I accord en- 
tirely with his view. ' Christ's dying on the cross is 
called his becoming a curse^ that is, an accursed 
person, a person ignominiously punished as a male- 
factor ; not because he was really a malefactor, and 
the object of God's displeasure, but because he was 
punished in the manner, in which accursed persons, or 
malefactors, are punished. He was not a transgressor, 

but he was num>hered with the transgressors 

That this is the true import of the phrase having be- 
come a curscj is evident from the passage in the law, 
by which the apostle proves his assertion : It is written^ 
accursed is every one who is hanged on a tree,^ 

In addition to these passages, there are several in 
the New Testament, in which Christ is said to have 
suffered or died for us^ or for our sins^ — reiterations 
in fact of the prophet's words : ' He was wounded for 
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; 
the chastisement of our peace, (that is, the chastise- 
ment, through which our peace came,) was upon him ; 
and with his stripes we are healed.'"^ These texts 
express, without ambiguity to my own mind, the great 
fundamental truth with regard to Christ's death, in 
which all Christians are agreed, namely, that he died 
for us, died in our behalf, and that his death is the 
means of our peace and happiness, both here and 
hereafter. They present no difficulty, they demand 
no forced interpretation, to make them consistent with 



* Isaiah liii. 5. 

18 



206 



THE ATONEMENT. 



the simplicity of our faith. Nay, it is only by a forced 
interpretation, that they are made to denote Christ's 
vicarious punishment. When you say that a patriot 
died for his country, that a self-devoted citizen suffered 
for the liberty or peace of his fellow-citizens, or that a 
missionary offered himself to privation, suffering, or 
death, for the ignorance or guilt of benighted pagans, 
you do not mean that one individual suffered or died in 
the stead of others ; but simply, that he suffered in their 
behalf, and incurred death in his disinterested exertions 
for their good. Now why should we interpret the 
language of the Bible on different principles from those, 
on which we interpret other language ? But all these 
complicated doctrines are founded on a broad departure 
from the common laws of interpretation, and on a 
stubborn determination to make words and phrases 
between the covers of the Bible mean something 
widely different from what they would mean in any 
other book. The phrases, which denote one's dying 
for another, when they occur elsewhere and on other 
subjects, are never deemed mystical. Why should 
any mystery hang over them, as we read them in the 
Bible ? 

I believe that I have now referred to the principal 
texts, or classes of texts, usually quoted by those, who 
believe that Christ was punished in our stead. I have 
not knowingly omitted any, which seemed to demand 
notice. In closing my remarks upon the doctrine of 
vicarious atonement, I would observe that the doctrine, 
if true, is not one, which there is any need of our 
knowing, or which can exert any practical influence 



THE ATONEMENT. 



207 



upon our hearts or lives. If it be true, it is impossible, 
(as I shewed you in the last lecture,) for us, in the 
present state of our faculties, to reconcile it with the 
justice of God ; and the belief of it would therefore 
stand in the way of right feelings with reference to his 
character. And, if it be true, it simply indicates an 
effect, that was produced, two thousand years ago, on 
the divine mind, — a change, that was then wrought in 
the divine character. It teaches nothing with regard 
to our hearts or characters. It indicates no change to 
be wrought in us. A blood, shed to make God pro- 
pitious, cannot be sprinkled upon our hearts and con- 
sciences. We cannot be conscious of a penalty paid, 
or a punishment inflicted, in our behalf, ages before we 
were born. It can then make no essential difference, 
whether we believe this doctrine or not. The work, if 
wrought, may have been wrought for the benefit of us, 
who can trace no authentic records of it, no less than 
for that of the patriarchs and prophets of the infant 
world, who died before it was wrought. We may 
safely remain ignorant of what cannot possibly affect 
our hearts or lives. It can be of vital consequence for 
us to know those things only, by knowing which we 
may be led to do w^hat we should otherwise leave 
undone, or to omit what we should otherwise do. 
Tried by this test, Christ's punishment in our stead, 
whether true or false, cannot claim the ])lace usually 
assigned to it, among essential, fundamental doctrines. 
The denial of it, if it do not, (as I believe that it 
does,) enhance the obligation to gratitude, penitence, 
and holiness, at least leaves the obligation to those 
duties unimpaired. 



208 



THE ATONEMENT. 



I now proceed to give a brief exposition of my own 
views of the atonement. The three great points, 
which seem to me to characterize the Scriptural doc- 
trine of the atonement, are, firsts that God is the 
author ; secondly^ that man is the object ; and, thirdly^ 
that holiness is the end of the atonement. These three 
ideas are found combined in very many of the instan- 
ces, in which the mission, mediation, and death of 
Christ are spoken of in the New Testament. I will 
read two or three passages of this nature, as specimens 
of scores that I might quote. 

' God was in Christ, reconciling the ivorld unto 
himself ^ God^ the author ; the worlds the object ; 
reconciliation to himself^ that is, holiness, the end. 

God hath made him to be sin for us^ who knew no 
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
in him.'f God^ the author ; for us^ the object ; that 
we might be made the righteousness of God^ the end. 

Where God is not mentioned in the very sentence, 
in which our Saviour's mission, mediation, or death, is 
spoken of, still the end, the production of hohness in 
man, is in hardly a single instance omitted. How 
clearly is this end, in contradistinction to any purpose 
with reference to the disposition or character of God, 
expressed in the following passages ! ' Christ hath 
also once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us to Goc^.'J 'Our Saviour Jesus 
Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem 
us from all iniquity^ and purify unto himself a pecu- 

* 2 Cor. V. 19. t 2 Cor. v. 21. t 1 Peter iii. 18. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



209 



liar people^ zealous of good works, ''^ 'Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners. "^f 'Who his 
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that 
tce^ being dead to sin^ should live unto righteousness. ^\ 
The leading idea of the Scriptural doctrine of the 
atonement then is, that Christ died to make men 
holy, to reconcile them to God, to lead them to his 
love and service, to make them ' followers of God as 
dear children,' in fine, that Christ died, to work, not 
upon God, but upon man, and for him to perform, not 
an outward, but an inward service, — a service, the 
efficacy^ of which is upon^the human heart and char- 
acter. 

I am well aware that many represent this as an 
inferior work, — as a work, which needed not for its 
discharge a personage so eminent* and heavenly, and 
which can hardly have authorized the strong language 
used in the Bible with regard to Christ's death, or the 
exalted titles and homage ascribed to Jesus on earth 
and in heaven. Had I^not often heard this objection, 
I should think it no compliment to your spiritual dis- 
cernment to take notice of it ; for I feel sure that I 
have your entire sympathy, when I say that the 
greatest service, which God himself can render to 
man, is to make him holy, perfect, godlike, to redeem 
him from the power of sin, and to shed the consecra- 
tion of a devout and dutiful spirit over his whole soul 
and his whole [life.^And if Christ has performed this 
service for man, then has he performed for him the 



* Titus ii. 10, 11. t 1 Timothy i. 15. t 1 Peter ii. 24. 
18* 



210 



THE ATONEMENT. 



most momentous and godlike service possible, — a ser- 
vice, for which he cannot but have a name above every 
other name, and for which the eternal ascription of 
gratitude and praise must echo through the ranks of the 
redeemed. Leave this service unperformed, leave me 
in unrepented sin, with my groveUing aims and uncon- 
secrated life, and it is a small service, that a price is 
paid, or a penalty borne in my stead, — I carry my 
hell about with me, a hell, which would shed its black- 
ness over my spirit, were I in paradise. But save me 
from my sins, purge my conscience, sanctify my soul, 
reform and consecrate my life, in hell itself I should be 
proof against its torments, — I cannot but be happy, — 
my heaven is within, and cannot be taken from me. 
The idea, that to elevate and sanctify the inner man is 
a subordinate work, proceeds from the unspiritual. 
grovelling ways of thinking, that have been but too 
characteristic of our race taken collectively. Men 
most admire what comes with observation, — what is 
external and formal. They appreciate not what is 
wrought in the hidden man of the heart, and ripens for 
eternity. On this ground, the conqueror has always 
seemed a greater man than the philanthropist, and the 
founder of a hospital, than he, who heals the diseases 
of the soul. On precisely the same principle is it, that 
men have assigned a higher dignity and worth to an 
atonement, which should wipe away all punishment at 
a single stroke, than to an atonement, which must be 
wrought over afresh in each individual heart, creating 
it anew in the beauty of holiness and in the fulness of 
the divine image. To my own mind, this latter office 



THE ATONEMENT. 



211 



with regard to the individual soul is the highest office, 
which I can innagine as belonging to the Saviour ; and 
to say that the blood of Christ has cleansed a single 
soul from sin, and has wholly sanctified that soul, is to 
ascribe more to it, than were we to say that it has re- 
moved the mere penalty of violated law from a whole 
universe of sinners. 

But some one may say : ' If Christ does no more 
than to cleanse the soul from sin, and to renew it in 
the divine image, my hope of pardon for my past sins 
is gone.' It is gone, I reply, if you will persist in 
looking upon God as essentially vindictive and unfor- 
giving ; but not, if you will only take God's testimony 
concerning his own character, uttered many ages before 
Christ died, when he revealed himself to Moses, ' The 
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suf- 
fering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgres- 
sion, and sin.' I believe that God was never other- 
wise than he then declared himself. I build, no more 
than those, who hold an opposite doctrine, on my own 
merits. I depend for forgiveness on the eternal mercy 
of God, made known to the fathers, made manifest and 
incarnate in Christ. Let none call this a sandy foun- 
dation. If God's mercy be not a sufficient basis for 
our trust, I know not what can suffice. It is a founda- 
tion broader than the universe, — immovable, though 
heaven and earth pass away. It belts creation with a 
zone of love. It upholds all worlds and beings. It is 
boundless and infinite. The need, so often expressed, 
of Christ's vicarious punishment, is a need, which the 



212 



THE ATONEMENT. 



doctrine itself creates. I should feel it, if I believed 
that God was ever unwilling or unable to forgive. I 
should feel it, if I believed, in Dr. Watts's language, 
that God's throne ^ once was a seat of dreadful wrath,' 
and that ' Vengeance was his name.' 

But let it not be supposed that I do not connect 
Christ, his sufferings, and his death, most intimately 
with the forgiveness of sins. My hope of pardon is 
in God through Christ. The doctrine of pardon, even 
if revealed before Christ, was not so brought to light 
and made manifest, that it could be the object of a 
sustaining and satisfying faith. On the question, 
whether God will forgive sin, the analogies of nature 
shed no light ; for her subtle powers and majestic 
agencies have never sinned, but are all obedient. 
Those, therefore, who have been left to the light of 
nature, have never found peace under the burden of 
transgression ; but have gone the whole round of fasts, 
penances, pilgrimages, and self-tortures, without ob- 
taining through any or all of these means the assurance 
of forgiveness. Nor did the fainter and often mysteri 
ous light of God's earlier revelations communicate this 
assurance in its fulness. To the heart that knows 
itself, and feels its unworthiness and sinfulness, the 
most vital of all questions is, Can I be forgiven ? And 
to this question, no sufficient and satisfying answer has 
been afforded, except in the loving and paternal attri- 
butes of the Almighty, as made manifest in the person, 
the ministry, the cross of Christ. But, when we look 
to Jesus as the image of God, we behold in him a love 
full and free, ready to forgive, waiting to be gracious. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



213 



We feel that there is no h'mit to the mercy, which, 
amidst the agonies of death, could make intercession 
for the transgressors ; and we can thus look for pardon 
with implicit confidence to that mercy on the throne of 
the universe, which he, who on the cross prayed for his 
murderers, came to declare and manifest. It is then 
to God, as revealed and beheld in Christ, that we look 
for pardon. But we regard the promise and pledge 
of pardon, as but the means and motive to personal 
holiness. Jesus says to us, ' Your sins be forgiven,' 
only that he may add, with an emphasis, which par- 
doning mercy alone could send home to the soul of the 
penitent, ' Go, and sin no more.' God permits us to 
behold his forgiving love in Christ, that, through the 
energy of this love, our souls may be transformed, re- 
newed, and sanctified. 

But in behalf of a vicarious atonement, I have 
sometimes heard an appeal made to personal experi- 
ence. Let us then analyze experience, and see how 
far it can go. There are many here, I trust, who 
have personally 'received the atonement,' who cherish 
the faith and hope, and lead the life of the Christian, 
who feel the peace of God in their hearts, and breathe 
his spirit in their daily conversation. Were I address- 
ing myself to an individual of this class, I should 
appeal to his own consciousness, and say, What, my 
friend, are you conscious that Christ has done for you ? 
That he has paid any price for you ? That he has 
incurred any penalty due to you ? No. Of this, even 
if it be the case, you cannot be conscious. Of what 
then are you conscious ? That Christ has made the 



214 



THE ATONEMENT. 



name of God a dear and cherished name to your heart ; 
that he has brought you near to him, as a child to a 
Father ; that he has taught you to pray ; that he has 
made you love virtue ; that he has led you, drawn you 
on, in the path of duty ; that his cross and death have 
appealed to your best affections, have rebuked your 
selfishness and worldliness, have made you feel the 
beauty of holiness, have been to your soul a touch- 
ing manifestation of divine love, have laid you under a 
pleasing constraint to live, not for yourself, but for him 
that died for you. You have looked upon the cross, 
and said, ^ Herein is love ; ' and that love has made 
the yoke of obedience easy, and the burden of duty 
light, has called out your own love, has made you 
heartily penitent for sin, and earnestly desirous to live 
as the cross bids you live, and to be a follower of the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. This is the sum of the 
Christian's religious experience, — this, the atonement 
wrought in the true disciple's heart, — this, the work, 
which takes precedence of all others, in its dignity, its 
worth, and its fruits. 

Let us now pause for a moment, and consider how 
much is implied in that one word, atonement^ — recon- 
ciliation. Here is a human being, either sunk in gross 
depravity, or immersed in the heartless pursuit of gain 
or pleasure. He is alienated from God, renders him 
no thanks, offers him no prayers, and lives as he might 
live, were he self-created and in a world of his own. 
His sympathies, either are shut up within his own 
bosom, or flow within the narrow channel of home and 
kindred ; and, even for those whom he loves, he seeks 



i 



THE ATONEMENT. 215 

not the best gifts, loves not their souls, — his love 
may be false, fatal to their highest interests, — he 
may wreathe around them his own chains of worldH- 
ness or guilt, — his example and influence may be 
pestilential to all within his reach. For that man 
atonement is to be made. He is to be brought to God. 
Those stains upon his spirit and his life are to fade 
away before the light of God's countenance. That 
soul must look on Jesus, till his divine features stamp 
themselves upon it. That heart, so cold, or so filled 
with lower loves, must be wholly filled with the love of 
God. That life, so selfish, must breathe a diffusive, 
all-embracing charity. That example, that influence, 
now neutral, if not baneful, must bless all on whom it 
shines, and lead neighbors, friends, strangers, to give 
glory to God for its beautiful light. The whole char- 
acter must reflect the divine image. There must be a 
reconciliation of will and purpose, a blending of the 
man's will with his God's, a oneness of aim and effort, 
a frame of soul and of life, of which the man may 
say w^ith truth, 'God dwells in me, and I in him.' 
Not until all this is the case, not until the Father's love 
throbs in every pulsation of the child's heart, and the 
Father's will rules in every action of the child's life, is 
the atonement, the at-one-ment^ fully made. 

It is this high and glorious work, which Jesus per- 
forms, when he brings us to the Father, when he 
reconciles us unto God. This is the atonement, of 
which God is the author, Christ the agent, man the 
object. To effect this was the whole work of Christ's 
ministry, miracles, teachings, hfe, death, resurrectioDj 



i 



216 



THE ATONEMENT* 



and intercession. But, in this work, the New Testa- 
ment assigns the most prominent place to the death of 
Christ ; and every Christian heart assigns to it the 
same place. He is no Christian, to whom the cross is 
not dear, and who has not felt the need and worth of a 
suffering Redeemer. The blood of Calvary has been 
the life-blood of the church. 

For, in the first place, it is by love, that man, when 
alienated from God, is softened, humbled, and made 
penitent. He could resist threats. He could steel his 
heart against the denunciations of vengeance. In 
the fearful might of a rebellious spirit, he could dare 
a frowning heaven and a vindictive Deity. But love 
has a voice, to which none can listen unmoved, es- 
pecially when it makes itself heard from amidst tor- 
ture and mortal agony, incurred in behalf of those 
with whom it pleads. How does the thought of one, 
who suffered and died for every man, rouse the last 
faint spark of virtuous feeling and of moral strength, 
and fan it into a generous flame ! Hovi^ does it bring 
near, those who were afar off, make them ashamed of 
their wanderings, and excite the earnest longing, that 
for themselves such love may not have been in vain ! 
' Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
down his life for his friends.' Jesus might have dwelt 
on earth in glorious majesty, and passed to heaven from 
an unsuffering ministry, and yet have loved man no 
less ; but man would not have discerned the depth, or 
felt the power of his love, had he not gone as a lamb 
to the slaughter, and freely given himself up for us 
all. 



THE ATONEMENT. 



217 



But was it his own love only, that Jesus manifested 
on the cross ? No ; but also the love of One greater 
than he. For he came from the bosom of the Father ; 
and he represented his own mission and death as the 
fruit, the expression, the pledge of the Father's love. 
' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son.' In him w^as manifested the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily ; and, in the depth of his compassion 
and the perfectness of his love, he was exhibiting the 
intensity of God's pity, and the fervor of his affection 
for his human family. By carrying his love to the last 
point of endurance and of sacrifice, he exhibited the 
boundlessness of that mercy, which is the sinner's 
hope, — he made the promise of pardon full, free, all- 
embracing, — he bore the image of a Father always 
ready to forgive, always waiting to be gracious. 
' Scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet per- 
adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 
But God commendeth his love tow^ards us, in that 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' When 
we look at the cross, we are constrained to ask, with 
St. Paul, ' He that spared not his own Son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not with him 
also freely give us all things ? ' When we view God 
in Christ, as Christ seals his mission with his 
blood, we can exclaim, with the same apostle, ' I am 
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of 
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' It is in the 
19 



218 



THE ATONEMENT. 



love and the cross of Christ, that the Father goes 
forth to meet the wandering child. It is in Christ cru- 
cified, that he reveals the fulness of paternal love ; and 
thus, from the first moment, gives the penitent broad, 
firm ground for encouragement and hope, without 
which he would have neither confidence nor strength to 
retrace his evil ways, and to return to the path of God's 
commandments. 

Then, too, it behoved Christ, as our guide and ex- 
ample in duty, as the tvay and the life^ to be made 
perfect through suffering. His godlike purity and vir- 
tue might have been no less perfect and entire in a 
manifestation, without suffering, and full of outward 
glory. But the beauty of the picture would have been 
marred by the gold and tinsel of its setting. It shews 
itself most perfect and divine, when encompassed by 
no outward form or comeliness, wrapped in the weeds 
of sorrow, and shining forth from the shadow of death. 
His submission, his tenderness, his forgiveness, his 
philanthropy, his piety, could have had, in no other 
form, their full manifestation. His example could have 
been, under no other circumstances, so radiant with 
spiritual beauty, so attractive, so inviting. It is at the 
cross, that we learn the full preciousness and loveliness 
of Christ's character, and feel ourselves the most 
loudly called, the most tenderly entreated, to become 
his followers. 

Then also Christ's sufferings and death bring his ex- 
ample home to those scenes of trial, conflict, sorrow, 
and agony, in which we are the most strongly tempted 
to forsake the service of God, and in which, therefore. 



THE AT0NE3IENT. 



219 



we stand in the most urgent need of divine help and 
strength. We behold in him a full and perfect victory- 
over every enemy to our peace and progress. We 
see the sting of sorrow destroyed, the power of 
death subdued. We behold him triumphant over 
grief, and agony, and the bitterness of the grave ; and 
trace, through the shadow of his tomb, a path of 
living light that leads to heaven. We hear from his 
cross the voice, ' Be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life ; ' — ' To him that over- 
cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even 
as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father 
in his throne.' 

In all these points of view, was Christ's death an 
essential part of that plan of redemption, by which 
man is saved from sin, and made one with God. 
Without his death, his own love would not have been 
fully shown, and might have pleaded in vain. Without 
his death, God's love in him would not have had its 
utmost manifestation ; God's promise of pardon through 
him would have lacked its seal ; God's invitation, his 
offered mercy to the returning sinner, would not have 
had full emphasis of utterance. Without his death, 
his example would have wanted its most godhke 
aspects. Without his death, his example would not 
have applied itself to those scenes and seasons of life, 
in which we are the most liable to faint or to wan- 
der, and the most in need of divine light and guidance. 
His death, then, was essential to the full power of the 
gospel, and thus to the restoration and sanctification of 
the human soul. 



220 



THE ATONEMENT. 



Yet, because I deem Christ's death thus essential, I 
do not undervalue his life, his teachings, his resurrec- 
tion, or his intercession. They all combine to consti- 
tute the vast and beautiful system of means, by which 
God reconciles man to himself, and through which man 
receives the atonement. 

If these things be so, brethren, the atonement is a 
work wrought, not for us, but within us. It is Christ's 
work of grace in our souls. When we feel in our 
inmost hearts, and show forth in our daily walk and 
conversation, the power of his death, the power of 
his spirit, when the cross is reerected in our souls, 
and our sins are nailed to it, when his last prayer, 
'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,' is the 
prayer of our whole lives, then, and not till then, 
have we received the atonement. Let our discussion 
awaken us all to self-examination as to our part in this 
work of grace, in this inward salvation. And let us 
account ' Christ formed within ' as our only hope of 
glory ; and deem ourselves his, only so far as we bear 
the image of his purity, submission, obedience, love, 
and piety. 

I have now^, my friends, in a series of eight lectures, 
reviewed with you some of the heads of Christian doc- 
trine, on which I dissent from the established creeds of 
those portions of the church, with which, next to our 
own, we are the most conversant. In my first lecture, 
I labored to establish the divine unity. In my second^ 
I discussed the question of our Saviour^s supreme di- 
vinity. In my thirds I endeavored to exhibit a com- 
prehensive view^ of the teaching of Scripture with 



THE ATONEMENT. 



221 



regard to Chrises true rank and dignity. My fourth 
was upon the nature and agency of the holy spirit* 
My fifth was on human nature ; my sixth on regenera- 
tion ; my seventh nnd eighth have been on the atone- 
ment. There are other points of Christian doctrine, 
which I wish to present in similar systematic and 
argumentative discourses ; and, particularly, I hope, 
at some future time, should my life be spared, to 
present to you, in a course of sermons, the positive 
side of our views of Christian truth, without reference 
to points in controversy. But other engagements dispose 
me now to close the present course, especially as I have 
embraced in it S group of subjects, which naturally 
belong together, and so connect themselves with each 
other, as to give to the course a certain unity and 
wholeness. 

In conclusion, let me urge you, on all these subjects, 
to search the Scriptures for yourselves, diligently and 
prayerfully, and not to accept my results, without 
making them your own, by the careful use of the 
reason with which God has endowed you, and the 
light which he has given you. And may he, the 
spirit of truth, guide you into all truth, and make you 
faithful in the way of his commandments, even in 
that path, which grows brighter and brighter unto the 
perfect day. 



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* In a field of criticism, where sectarianism has spoiled nearly every 
tree and flower, this new product of a generous soil deserves our notice 
as the nearest approach to an unsectarian work. We feel certain it 
will meet the wants of all who call themselves liberal Christians, as 
a family expositor, a reference book in the study of the Gospel, a 
companion in the Sunday School, and an aid to daily devotion. It is 
learned, yet not dry, rational, yet not cold; fervent, yet not fanatical; 
tasteful, yet not one line for mere taste. Mr. Livermore is concise, 
practical, reasonable, full of generous and holy feeling. His first 
volume having met in a few months with so extensive a sale as to 
authorize a stereot)rpe edition, we commend its simplicity, earnest- 
ness, purity of morals, and practical piety, to a popularity like that 
which has already rewarded the like labors of Mr. Barnes.' — Himt\ 
Merchants^ Magazine and Commercial Review, 

Livermore's Commentary on the Book of the 
Acts of the Apostles. 

1 



2 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Norton on the Trinity. A Statement of Reasons 
for Not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians, con- 
cerning the Nature of God, and the Person of Christ. 
By Andrews Norton. 12mo. pp. 372. 

' As a critic and theologian, Mr. Norton has long ranked in the very 
first class. But the present treatise will not need the aid of his high 
reputation to give it weight and influence. Those who know any- 
thing of him or his writing will readily credit us when we say, that 
it exhibits a rare union of good sense, choice learning, discrimination, 
and sound logic, which will place it among our standard works in 
theology. 

' Mr. Norton writes for intelligent men, for those who do not shrink 
from examination and patient thought, who are not disgusted at being 
required to exercise a manly independence, who seek truth for truth's 
sake, and are willing to pay the price of its attainment. Such will 
find in the work before us ample materials for study and reflection. 
We are much mistaken, if to many of them it do not open new 
views.' — Christian Examiner. 

Norton's Genuineness. The Evidences of the Gen- 
uineness of the Gospels. By Andrews Norton. S 
vols. 8vo. 

Noyes's Hebrew Prophets. A New Translation of 
the Hebrew Prophets, arranged in Chronological Or- 
der. 3 vols. 12mo. Each volume comprising about 
pp. 300. New Edition with additions. 

* We conceive that Mr. Noyes has made the Christian public much 
his debtor by the portion now before us of a version of that difficult 
and strongly interesting part of Scripture, the Hebrew prophecies. 
Three things are especially to be spoken of to his praise : his learning, 
his cautious and sound judgment, and his beautiful taste. # ^ =^ 

* We conclude with expressing our firm persuasion, that the great 
importance of these works will not fail to be permanently and in- 
creasingly estimated. It is not to the credit of our countrymen, if 
their author is not already reaping some benefit from them, additional 
to his own consciousness, and their acknowledgment, of his having 
devoted high powers to a high object.' — Christian Examiner. 

' This new edition is of increased value on account of the additions 
and corrections which it contains. The whole series of volumes, 
from the pen of this accomplished Hebrew scholar, may now be ob- 
tained in a uniform shape, and is of great value, and of high impor- 
tance to all students of the Bible. Common readers will be surprised 
to observe how many passages, which are unintelligible to them in 
the common version, are here made plain and significant by a slight 
change of expression, of the meaning of a single word, or the turn of 
a sentence. We should advise all who wish to procure a set of these 
translations to make haste to obtain one ; it is a purchase which they 
will never regret.' — Christian Register. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 3 



Noyes's Psalms. A New Translation of the Book of 
Psalms, with an Introduction. By Geroge R. Noyes. 
12mo. Li press. 

Noyes's Job- An Amended Version of the Book of 
Job, wdth an Introduction and Notes, chiefly Explana- 
tory. By George R. Noyes. Second Edition, revised 
and corrected. 12mo. 

* No translation has appeared in England, since that of Isaiah by 
Lowth, which can sustain a comparison with that of the Book of Job, 
by Mr. Noyes. With some slight exceptions, this latter is very much 
what we could wish it to be.' — Spirit of the Pilgrims. 

' We have not seen any translation of the Book of Job with which 
the pubhc ought to be satisfied, unless it be that which is the subject 
of the present review. Mr. Noyes's version is, in our opinion, by far 
the best translation of Job we have seen in the English language. 
Almost every page bears testimony to his acuteness and patient in- 
dustry, to his habitual caution and accuracy, to his fine powders of 
discrimination, and to his excellent skill and good taste. He has con- 
centrated upon the sacred page the most approved lights of ancient 
and modern learning ; yet he has done it, not, as has been the case 
with many, to add new brightness to the original, but to illustrate 
what had been made obscure, and to present to view, in its true pro- 
portions, what had become distorted through the fault of imperfect 
versions. 

' The notes at the end of the volume have been examined by us 
with care, and we cannot withhold the tribute of our high commen- 
dation, not only for the evidence they give of extensive research, and 
great discrimination, but for their invariable pertinency, and the per- 
fectly unostentatious manner in which they are composed. Indeed, 
we know not where we could find collected, in so narrow compass, 
with so much judgment, and with so little parade, the results of the 
inquiries of so many distinguished biblical scholars.' — Christian Ex- 
aminer. 

Friendly Letters to a Universalist^ on Divine 
Rewards and Punishments. By Bernard Wiiitman. 
]6mo. pp. 368. 

' Though this work was hastily ivritten, the materials for it were 
collected with good care and fidehty. It is a thorough work. It 
covers the whole ground of Universalist argument ; and gives a faith- 
ful expose of the opposing testimony of reason and Scripture. The 
work can hardly exasperate those against whose creed it is aimed ; 
for a spirit of courtesy and kindness pervades it. Nor can one, who 
already believes in a righteous retribution, fail to have his faith 
strengthened by so able a defence of that doctrine.' — American Monthly 
Review, 



4 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY*S PUBLICATIONS. 



Palfrey's Academical Lectures. Academical Lec- 
tures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities. By 
John Gorham Palfrey, D. D., LL. D. Vol. I. The 
Last Four Books of the Pentateuch. Vol. II. Genesis 
and Prophets. 8vo. 

* The first volume of this valuable, learned, and elaborate work has 
just publicly appeared in a truly beautiful form. It is not a book to 
be lightly read or lightly spoken of 

' We can only say that, from the time of its announcement as being 
in preparation, general expectation has been highly raised in regard 
to it, and that, as far as v^e have examined the present volume, or 
heard the opinions of those who are more competent to pass judg- 
ment upon its merits, we are happy to believe that it constitutes a 
noble addition to the many high claims of its distinguished author to 
public esteem and honor, as a scholar, a divine, and a devoted sup- 
porter of American Literature.' — N. A. Review, 

Palfrey's Lowell Lectures. Lowell Lectures on 
the Evidences of Christianity. By John Gorham Pal- 
frey. With a discourse on the Life and Character of 
John Lowell, Jr. By Edward Everett. 2 vols. 8vo. 

Palfrey's Sermons. Sermons on Duties belonging to 
some of the Conditions and Relations of Private Life. 
By John G. Palfrey, D. D., Professor of Biblical Litera- 
ture in the University of Cambridge. 12mo. 

* These discourses of Professor Palfrey are entitled to an honorable 

Elace with those of Barrow, Tillotson, Seeker, and Cappe. And they 
ave the superior advantage of presenting within the limits of a single 
volume — of no ordinary typographical beauty — a natural and syste- 
matic arrangement of most of the private social duties. For our- 
selves, we have perused them with satisfaction and thankfulness to 
the author.' — Christian Examiner. 

Worcester's Last Thoughts, on Important Subjects. 
In three parts. I. Man's Liability to Sin. II. Supple- 
mentary Illustrations. III. Man's Capacity to Obey. 
By Noah Worcester, D. D. 16mo. pp. 328. 

' It is the rare merit of the writer's mind, that, although always 
moving onward in his investigations, he moves so cautiously, and with 
such reverence for the truth, and such distrust of himself, that his 
* Last Thoughts^ on every subject are invariably his best.' 

Pollen's Works. The Works of Charles FoUen ; with 
a Memoir of his Life. 5 vols. 12mo, 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 5 



Greenwood's Chapel Liturgy. A Liturgy for the 
use of the Church at King's Chapel in Boston; col- 
lected principally from the Book of Common Prayer. 
Fifth Edition ; with Family Prayers and Sei-vices, and 
other additions. By F. W. P. Greenwood, 12mo. 

Greenwood's Lives of the Apostles. Lives of the 
twelves Apostles, to which is prefixed a Life of John 
the Baptist. By F. W. P. Greenwood. Second Edition. 
16mo. With plates. 

Greenwood's Sermons. Sermons to Children. By 
F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D., Minister of King's Chapel, 
Boston. 1 vol. 16mo. 

' A work of this sort doubtless requires some peculiar gifts of the 
heart, as well as of intellect ; and we wish, that when it is under- 
taken from the pulpit, it might be with any good measure of the 
felicity and skill with which Dr. Greenwood has in these beautiful 
sermons accomplished it. We have read them with great pleasure, 
and what is more to the purpose, — since for such they were written, 
— we have found little children who have read them with pleasure 
too. In the judicious selection of the topics, in the crystal clearness 
of the style, in the simplicity and beauty of the thoughts, and the 
tone of seriousness and unfeigned love pervading the whole, they 
furnish a model for such addresses to the pulpit We can commend 
the volume to parents, that they may obtain it for their children, and 
to children, that they may read it for themselves, — engaging at the 
same time that they shall not find it ' hard reading.' ' — Monthly 
Miscellany. 

* We are delighted to meet with a volume for children in some other 
form than a story. We believe these Sermons will be read with as 
much interest as any of the little novels with which the press teems, 
and with more profit.' — Christian Examine!'. 

Sermons on Consolation. By F. W. P. Greenwood, 
D. D., Minister of King's Chapel, Boston. Second 
Edition. 1 vol. 16mo. 

The Last Days of the Savior, or History of the 
Lord's Passion. From the German of Olshausen. 
Translated by Rev. S. Osgood. 12mo. 

Sketch of the Reformation. By Bev. T. B. Fox. 

' This volume contains a short but clear narrative of the lives and 
labors of Luther, Tetzel, Melancthon, Zwingle, and others, 

1* 



6 JAMES MUNROE ANB COMPANY*S PUBLICATIONS, 



Channing's Works. The Works of William E. Chan- 
ning, D. D. First complete Ahierican edition, with an 
Introduction. 6 vols. 12mo. Five Dollars. 

This edition 'of the works was published under the author's 
own supervision. 

Channing's SeltCnltnre. Self- Culture. By W. E. 
Channing. With a Biographical Sketch of the author. 
16mo. cloth, gilt. Price 37 1-2 cents. 

' It should be the pocket companion of every young man in the 
country, and to be found on every lady's centre table.' — Cultivator. 

' It is indeed a gem of English composition, of sound, vigorous 
thought and pure wisdom.' — Mobile Register. 

' Few tracts have exerted a more wide and salutary influence than 
Dr. Channing's lecture on Self- Culture. It is a powerful statement 
of encouraging truths set forth in that clear, harmonious and impress- 
ive style for which its lamented author was distinguished. We are 
happy to see it republished in so neat a manner, now that death has 
consecrated the eloquent lessons it conveys. The humblest votary of 
improvement will derive consolation and guidance from its pages.' — 
Boston Miscellany. 

Practical Ethics. Human Life, or Practical Ethics. 
From the German of De Wette. Translated by Samuel 
Osgood. 2 vols. 12mo. 

' These lectures have long enjoyed a high reputation in Germany, 
and other parts of Europe, and we hail with unfeigned pleasure their 
publication in this country. They are eminently original, profound 
and suggestive.' — New World. 

* Those interested in the study of ethics, will find in the present 
volumes, a beautiful richness of illustration, and an extended con- 
sideration of the practical duties of life ; and although many readers 
will doubtless dissent from some of the author's principles, as from 
his application of them, the book merits a reading, as exhibiting the 
views of a philosophical and independent mind, and, at the same time, 
those which prevail to a great extent on the continent of Europe.' — 
American Eclectic. 

Buckminster's Works. The Works of Joseph Ste- 
vens Buckminster ; with Memoirs of his Life. In two 
vols. 12mo. 

* One of the first religious books we remember to have read was 
the first volume of Buckminster's Sermons ; and the beautifully 
written life and two or three of the discourses fixed themselves in the 
mind, as nothing is fixed there save in our early years. 

' His sermons, as sermons, are certainly surpassed by none in the 
language.' — Monthly Miscellany, 



JAMF.S MTJNUOTJ AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 7 



De Wette on the Old Testament. A Critical and 
Historical Introduction to the Canonical Scriptures of 
the Old Testament. From the German of De Wette, 
Translated and enlarged by Theodore Parker. 2 vols, 
8vo. 

Parker's Miscellaneous Writings. The Critical 
and Miscellaneous Writings of Theodore Parker, Min- 
ister of the Second Church in Koxbmy. 

Contents. A Lesson for the Day; German Literature ; The Life 
of St. Bernard of Clairvaux : Truth against the World ; Thoughts on 
Labor; A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity; 
The Pharisees ; On the Education of the Laboring Class ; How to 
move the World : Primitive Christianity ; Strauss's Life of Jesus ; 
Thoughts on Theology. — 

' We are glad to see these miscellanies republished, and think all 
who read them will enjoy their spirit even when they disagree with 
their doctrines. The tone of earnest conviction, the glow of feeling, 
the occasional beauty of expression in these pages, is very refresliing.' 
— Merchants^ Magazine. 

' The essays are written in a style which combines the plainness of 
CoBBETT with just the slightest sprinkling of modern literary Euphvn 
ism ; a combination less unattractive than might at the first blush be 
inferred from such a coalition.' — Knickerbocker. 

Parker's Discourses. A Discourse on Matters per* 
taining to Religion. By Theodore Parker, Minister of 
the Second Church in Roxbury. 

Farr's Counsels and Consolations: Containing 

Meditations and Reflections on sixty-two passages of 
Scripture, with particular reference to those in trouble 
and affliction ; to which are added four sermons, suited 
to persons in distressing and mournful circumstances. 
By Jonathan Farr. Second Edition. Enlarged by 
several Prayers, and an Address to those who have 
been afflicted. 1 vol. 18mo. 

' This volume is eminently a v^ork of compassion, it is medicine, 
food, and air for the afflicted lonely ones. That medicine is com- 
pounded of ingredients gathered in the garden of the Lord ; that food 
is the bread which came down from heaven ; that air is the zephyry 
odor, which comes from the paradise of God. Let the mentally 
debilitated take, eat, breathe, and revive.' — London Christian Pioneer. 



8 JAMES MUNROE ANi) COMPANY^S PUBLICATION^. 



An Offering of Symi)athy to the Afflicted: Es- 
pecially to Parents bereaved of their Children. Being 
a collection from Manuscripts never before published* 
With an Appendix of Extracts^ By Francis Parkman* 
Third Edition. 18mo. 

' Though small, it is rich in comfort and instruction. Prepared by 
the editor in a season of peculiar personal affliction, it contains many 
of his own thoughts^ with the judicious selections which he made 
from books from which he drew consolation, besides the original 
articles which at his request were furnished by his brethren in the 
ministry. In the present edition not only is the Appendix — of Ex- 
tracts — enlarged, but an original article is given not found in the 
former editions.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

' We are not surprised that Dr. Parkman's excellent little volume 
has reached a third edition. It has carried comfort to many a heart. 
We wish it well on its errand of peace.* — Christian Examiner. 

' A volume deserving a cordial welcome to every house and heart. 
The variety of thought and expression, and yet the perfect harmony 
of tone of feeling which marks this spiritual wreath for a christian 
cemetery, will make it live and bloom as long as sorrow is known.' — 
Htmfs Magazine. 

The Holy Land and its Inhabitants. By S. G. 

Bulfinch. Being a description of this interesting coun- 
try, and also a History of it, Ancient and Modern, its 
Antiquities, &c. &c. 

Lives of Eminent Unitarians; with a Notice of 
Dissenting Academies, containing Lives of Robertson, 
Palmer, Priestley, Price, and others. By the Rev. W. 
Turner, Jun., M. A. 2 vols. 12mo. 

Henry Ware^ Jr. Views of Christian Truth, Piety, 
and Morality, selected from the Writings of Dr. Priest- 
ley. With a Memoir of his Life. By Henry Ware, 
Jr. 12mo. pp. 288. 

* Mr. Ware has here erected a noble and enduring monument of the 
pure and truly Christian character of one of the most gifted and single- 
hearted of Christian confessors. The Memoir, compiled for the most 
part from Dr. Priestley's own letters, and other writings, and drawn 
up with care, is interesting throughout, and full of instruction. The 
same may also be said of the selection of sermons, and other pieces 
which make up the body of the work ; for they are almost exclusively 
practical, and present ' views of Christian truth, piety, and morality, 
remarkable for their good sense, strictness, and discrimination." — 
Christian Examiner. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 9 



Ware on Christian Character. On the Formation 
of Chiistian Character, addressed to those who are 
seekmg to lead a ReHgioiis Life. By Henry Ware, 
Jr., D. D. Twelfth Edition. 18mo. 

Henry Ware, Jr.'s Hints on Extemporaneous 
Preaching, with rules for its government. Third 
Edition. 

' It is the object of this little work to draw the attention of those 
who are preparing for the Christian ministry, or who have just 
entered it, to a mode of preaching, which the writer thinks has been 
too much discountenanced and despised ; but which under proper 
restrictions, he is persuaded may add greatly to the opportunities of 
ministerial usefulness.' — The Preface. 

Ware's Life of the Savior- The Life of the Savior, 
By Henry Ware, Jr., Professor of Pulpit Eloquence 
and the Pastoral Care in Harvard University, pp. 284. 
Fourth Edition. 18mo. 

' K we can suppose any person to be a stranger to the Gospel his- 
torians, in a Christian land, we think Professor Ware's narrative with 
its illustrations would be to such a person a work of unequalled in- 
terest in biography, provided he possessed a common share of moral 
sensibility. To one somewhat acquainted with those histories, perused, 
as they usually are, under great disadvantages in our common ver- 
sion, in small, detached portions, and without any helps, this ' Life of 
the Savior ' affords assistance, in various ways, at once in a more 
popular and a more intelligible form than can elsewhere be found, so 
iar as we know. This volume is intended particularly for the young ; 
but it is a valuable aid to every reader of the Gospels ; an aid to the 
understanding of them, and an aid to reflections upon their truths. It 
unites, in some good measure, the advantages of a paraphrase and a 
commentary, without the feebleness of the former, or the dryness of 
the latter.' — American Monthly Review. 

Henry Ware, Jr's. Scenes and Characters, Illus- 
trating Chiistian Truth. In a series of Tales, each 
number complete in itself. To be had separately. 
Edited by the Rev. H. Ware, Jr. 

' If we may judge of this series of little works from the two numbers 
which have appeared, we should say that it bids fair to be eminently 
useful, and to realize whatever we might expect from the high 
character of the writers engaged. They should be read. Whoever 
contributes at all to circulate them does ^good to the public.'-— jBos^cwi 
^aily Advertiser. 



10 JAMES MUNKOE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



1. TRIAL AND SEIF-BISCIPLINB. By ffiss Savage, Autlior of « James 
Talbot.' 

*Kthe remaining numbers shall be executed with the same skill, 
and the same deep religious feelings which pervade the first, these 
little volumes will be an important addition to the works which make 
religion attractive and lovely.' — Christian Register, 

2. THE SKEPTIC. By Mrs. Follen, Author of ' The Well-spent Hoar.' 

' This is an admirable little book, which no one will dip into without 
reading through, and no one will read through without being improved 
and delighted. The argumentative portions are clear and forcible, and 
are naturally and skillfully interwoven with the web of the story. 
The characters are conceived and sustained wonderfully well, and 
never were the Christian graces more beautifully and consistently 
displayed than in the life and conversation of Alice Grey. We owe a 
debt of gratitude to the writer who gives us so natural and true a pic- 
ture of the influence of Christianity upon our daily and hourly duties, 
and of the mighty power which it bestows upon the character and 
affections.' — Boston Observer. 

t HOME. By Miss Sedgwick, Author of ' Redwood/ &c. 

* The influence of an enlightened mind and pure heart is shed, like 
sunshine, over all that Miss Sedgwick writes.' — Mrs. Child. 

* One of the sweetest homely pictures of domestic life among the 
middle classes of New England, which it is possible to imagine, and 
one full of the instruction which makes a way to the heart' — TaiVs 
Magazine. 

4. GlEAJIS OF TRUTH. By the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D. ». 

' This little work differs from its predecessors in being not a ficti- 
tious and connected narrative, but a collection of detached facts, 
anecdotes, and conversations, which actually occurred within the 
writer's own experience. This difference, while it adds to its value, 

will not make it less interesting, but the contrary Truth 

is strange, and stranger than fiction, and the most creative imagina- 
tion could not have conceived more striking and consistent illustra- 
tions of Christian character than are here presented to us to admire 

and imitate Nothing can be more elevating, inspiring, and 

encouraging, than the instances which he has here given us.' — Boston 
Observer. 

5, THE BACKSLIDER. By the Author of the ' Hugenots,' &c. 

' The Blackslider is intended to illustrate the influence of Chris- 
tianity on minds differently constituted, particularly on the two prin- 
cipal characters of the story. In Anna Hope, we see its effects on a 
mind naturally well balanced. In Walter we see the good seed scat- 
tered on the thin soil ; and it is the aim of the writer to show where 
the lack of root is.' ' Such fictions as the one before us, by their 
faithful and graphic representations of human nature, affect us for 
the time like reality.' — Christian Examiner. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY^S PUBLICATIONS. 11 



6. ALFRED ; or, the Effects of True Repentance. And the BETTER 
PART. By the Author of • Sophia Morton.' 

Mrs. Farrar's Life of John Howard, the Philan* 
thropist, with a Preface by Eev. Henry Ware, Jr. 

This volume gives an interesting narrative of the Life and also of 
the various undertakings of this eminent philanthropist ; it is v^ritten 
with all the vigor of the other works of its author. 

Memoir of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, (Mnister to 
the Poor.) By Rev. W. E. Charming. 18mo. 

Jouilroy's Ethics. Introduction to Etliics : inchiding 
a Critical Survey of Moral Systems. Translated from 
the French of JoufFroy. By William H. Channing. 

This work consists of a critical reviev^ of various ethical systems ; 
aiming to give a fair view of the merits and demerits of each, with 
especial regard to the particular points wherein lay the faultiness of 
each. To every student of moral philosophy, and of the history of 
the human mind, such a sketch must be of very great interest and 
value. 

Burnap's Lectures to Young Men; on the culti- 
vation of the IMind, the formation of Character, and 
the Conduct of Life. Second Edition. By George W. 
Burnap. 1 vol. 12mo. 

* Remarkable for the intelligent spirit which they display, and the 
sound moral instructions conveyed.' — Phila. Ledger. 

Lectures on the Sphere and Duties of Woman, 

and other subjects. By George W. Burnap. 1 vol. 
12mo. 

' The duties of Women, and especially of American females, are 
ably defined, and correctly animadverted on. We take pleasure in 
recommending it as a work that all parents should place in the hands 
of their daughters, and the husband in that of his wife.' — N. Y, Lady's 
Co-mpanion. 

' We commend the book to the attention of every female, whether 
young or old, and whatever station she may fill. They will find a 
true friend in the author, and cannot fail to draw improvement from 
his admonitions.' — Boston Courier. 

Lectures on the History of Christianity. By 

George W. Burnap. 1 vol. 12mo. 



12 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Memoir of James Jackson^ Jr. M- D. written by 
his Father, with extracts from his Letters, and remi- 
niscences of him by a Fellow Student. 18mo. 

Memoir of Nathaniel Bowditch, (the Mathemati- 
cian.) 18mo. 

Dewey's Sermons. Discourses on various subjects. 
By Rev. Orville Dewey. 3 vols. 12mo. 

W. H. Furness. Jesus and his Biographers ; or the 
remarks on the Four Gospels, revised with copious 
additions. By W. H. Furness. 1 vol. 8vo. 

Ripley's Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature. 

Edited by George Bipley. 14 vols. 12mo. 

Volumes 12 and 13, containing De WETTE'S HUMAN 
LIFE. See page 6. 

Volume 14. SONGS AND BALLADS. With notes. 
Translated by Charles T. Brooks. 

The Unitarian. Conducted by Bernard Vl^hitman. 
8vo. pp. 590. 

Meditations for the Sick. By Jonathan Cole. ISmo. 

Tracts of the American Unitarian Association. 

In 15 vols. 12mo. 

Christian Disciple. 6 volumes, 8vo. 
Christian Examiner, complete to 1844. 35 vols. 

The pages of this work have been enriched by contributions from 
the pens of Worcester, Channing, Norton, Greenwood, Ware, and 
others. 

Henry Ware, D. D- An Inquiry into the Foundation, 
Evidences, and Truths of Religion. By Henry Ware, 
D. D., late Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard 
College. 2 vols. 12mo, 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 13 



Theodore; or the Skeptic's Conversion. Translated 
from the German of De Wette. By James F. Clarke. 
2 vols. 12mo. 

Sparks^s Essays and Tracts. A Collection of Es- 
says and Tracts in Theology. From various Authors, 
with Biographical and Critical Notices. By Jared 
Sparks. 6 vols. 12mo. 

Unitarian Miscellany, and Christian Monitor. Edited 
by Bev. Jared Sparks, and Be v. F. W. P. Greenwood. 
6 vols. 12mo. 

The Young Maiden. By Rev. A. B. Muzzey. Fourth 
Edition. 

*It will be perused with advantage by the class for whom it is 
especially designed, and will secure the favorable judgment of their 
most judicious friends.' — London Inquirer. 

The Young Man's Friend- By A. B. Muzzey. 18mo. 
Second Edition. 

Week Day Religion. By Rev. Bernard Wliitman. 
18mo. 

Gieseler's Text Book of Ecclesiastical History. By J. 
C, I. Gieseler, Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, 
and Professor of Theology in Gottingen. Translated 
from the Third German Edition by Francis Cunning- 
ham. 3 vols. 8vo. 

Observations on the Bible, for the use of Young Per- 
sons. 12mo. 

Locke on the Epistles- A Paraphrase and Notes 
on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Galatians, Fust and 
Second Corinthians, Bomans, and Ephesians. To 
which is prefixed an Essay for the Understanding of 
St. Paul's Epistles, by consulting St. Paul himself. By 
John Locke. Svo. pp. 456. 

The Dial. Published quarterly, 16 numbers now out 
Edited by B. W. Emerson. 
D:^ A few complete sets only remaining on hand. 
2 



14 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



JUST PUBXilSHIID. 

LECTURES 

ON 

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 

By Andrew P. Peabody, Pastor of the South Church, 
Portsmouth. 1 vol. 12nio. 

ENDEAVORS 

AFTER THE 

CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

A Volume of Discourses by James Martineau. 12mo. 

Contents. The Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ; The Besetting 
God ; Great Principles and Small Duties ; Eden and Gethsemane ; 
Sorrow no Sin ; Christian Peace ; Religion on False Pretences 5 
Mammon Worship ; The Kingdom of God within us, Part I ; The 
Kingdom of God within us, Part II ; The Contentment of Sorrow 5 
Immortality ; The Communion of Saints ; Christ's Treatment of 
Guilt; The Strength of the Lonely; Hand and Heart; Silence and 
Meditation ; Winter Worship ; The Great Year of Providence ; Christ 
and the Little Child ; The Christianity of Old Age ; Nothing Human 
ever Dies. — 

* These discourses form part of an extensive plan; and may be con- 
sidered not so much a separate work, as an introduction to a complete 
treatise on the Christian character and life. Their object is to awaken 
the Christian spirit, rather than to describe the perfect Christian life ; 
and while they inculcate specific duties and warn against specific 
sins, their leading design is to excite and strengthen the devout spirit 
that will lead us always to perform all duties. 

' We recommend the volume to our readers as the production of an 
enlightened Christian mind, full of earnestness and power and love of 
souls. It was composed because the author had something to say on 
the highest subjects of human thought, because his heart overflows 
with sympathy for the ills of man, and because he has felt for himself 
the blessedness of laboring for their removal. He is an enthusiast ; 
but an intelligent one, who does not expect to remove social evils by 
the application of any fine-spun political system, but by awakening 
in each individual heart some mighty emotion, that shall lead to the 
reformation of that individual life. 

' The discourses on the Kingdom of God within us, on Great Prin- 
ciples and Small Duties, on Immortality and the Great Year of Provi- 
dence, are particularly interesting and instructive.' — Monthly Miscellany, 



LETTERS ON EPISCOPACY. By Jared Sparks. 
Second Edition/with large additions. 1 vol. 12mo. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 15 



NEW HYMN BOOK. 

The Social Hymn Book, consisting of Psalms and 
Hymns, for Social Worship and Private Devotion. 
With 28 pages music. 

* It is designed to supply the want which is believed to be increasing, 
of a small and cheap Hymn Book for vestry meetings, and for parishes 
that are unable to procure more expensive collections.' — The Preface. 

' The collection contains 360 Hymns, 14 Doxologies, 21 Sacred 
tunes. There are somewhat more than 130 of the Hymns which are 
not found in Dr. Greenwood's, of these a portion are found in some of 
the other collections ; a part of them are truly exquisite and beautiful, 
and ought to appear in every collection. 

' The hymns which Mr. Robbins has introduced, in general do 
credit to his taste and reading. Some of those from Bishop Mant's 
Collection of Ancient Hymns seem harsh to most readers on a first 
perusal, but familiarity renders them highly attractive and stores the 
heart with rich and beautiful sentiments.' — Chdstian Register. 

' In looking over this work, we are happy to recognize a number 
of our favorite hymns, the omission of which in other collections 
we have always regretted. The Book breathes the spirit of the con- 
ference room, and is at the same time well adapted, as it is in part 
intended, ' for parishes that are unable to procure more expensive col- 
lections.' ' — Salem Observer. 

' This is an admirable selection of devotional hymns, and will, 
doubtless, become a favorite one for the purposes for which it was 
designed. The collection was made by Rev. Chandler Robbins, of 
this city, whose name, alone, is a sufficient guaranty for its excel- 
lence. We hail this little work, as one among the signs we daily see, 
of interest in the work of enlivening the whole Church, and bringing 
us all into an active, visible cooperation. 

' We ought to say in addition, that at the close of the book are 
placed some twenty, or more, of the most beautiful and popular tunes 
used at social religious meetings.' — Christian World. 

' We welcome, with the rest, the graceful little volume before us, as 
supplying a want, which has been sensibly felt in a department of our 
social w^orship, and as well adapted to private and domestic devotion. 
The excellence of its typographical execution in^'ites attention, which 
will be amply rewarded by its skillfully selected and arranged con- 
tents. 

' For infant and feeble parishes, ' unable to procure more expen- 
sive collections ; ' for the meetings of the vestry and all other social 
services among Christians ; for the private and domestic altar we 
cordially recommend the Selection before us. It unites the indispen- 
sable grace of a Christian spirit, by which it is pervaded, with poetic 
beauty : and so entire is its freedom from doubtful or sectarian phrase- 
ology, that it may easily become the manual, and a favorite one too, of 
Christians of various denominations.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

Already used in several parishes. Copies furnished to clergy 
and others, for examination. 



16 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



MANUALS 

FOR 

SABBATH SCHOOLS. 



Livermore^s Commentary. 2 vols. See page i. 

A Catechism of Natural Theology. By I. Nichols, 
D. D., Pastor of the First Church in Portland. Third 
Edition, with additions and improvements. 12mo. 
Plates. 

' Dr. Nichols has prefixed to his work the appropriate motto, ' Every 
house is builded by some man ; but he that built aH things is God ; ' 
and the work is a very happy illustration of its motto. It is devoted 
principally to an examination of the human frame, and it is shown 
that the conformation of its various parts, and their adaptation to the 
purposes which they are known to serve, could not have happened 
without the design of an intelligent Creator. It is better adapted to 
the comprehension of youth and common readers, than the more 
elaborate and extended treatises of Paley and others ; and next to the 
Holy Scriptures, is one of the most interesting and useful fields of 
contemplation which could be spread out before them. If any person 
can peruse this little book without feeling a kindred emotion, and 
forming a similar puipose, the fact would be an affecting proof of the 
alienation of the heart from its Maker. When it is remembered that 
Atheism is among the spreading errors of our land, we see an addi- 
tional reason for directing our youth to such intellectual pursuits, as 
will furnish the best defences against this arch heresy ; and such we 
regard the contents of the work under review. We are glad that a 
new edition of the work has been demanded, and that it makes its 
appearance in a style of execution so worthy of its matter.' — Ckris- 
tian Mirror, Portland^ Me. 

Hints to Snnday School Teachers, in a series of 
Familiar Lectures. By Rev. T. B. Fox. ISmo. price 
25 cents, 

Allen's Questions. Parts l, 2, and 3. 18mo. 

Walker's Service Book. i8mo. 

Fox's Sunday School Prayer Book. l8mo. 

Child's Duties and Devotions. iBmo. 

The Ministry of Christy with Questions. By Kev. 
T. B, Fox. IBmo. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 17 



Peabody's Sunday School Hymn Book. l8mo. 

Channing's, Worcester Association, Rhode Island, and 
Carpenter's Catechisms. 

Life of the Savior. By Rev. H. Ware, Jr. 18mo. 
See page 9 

Scripture Truths in Questions and Answers, for the 
use of Sunday Schools and Families. 18mo. pp. 75. 

* The writer of this little manual has not attempted to do better 
where others have done well. Nor is this simply another Sunday 
School book — though that would be no objection. It is in fact a 
new Sunday School book. It enters a province which has heretofore 
been kept shut, at least in the schools of Liberal Christians ; viz. the 
province of doctrine. =^ =^ ^ "With these views we welcome this book. 
Every question that is apt to arise, concerning God, Christ, Faith, 
Ordinances, Prayer, Repentance, &c. &c., is answered by a passage of 
Scripture ; and there are very few passages that do not contain fair 
answers and sufficient exposition for the young. The controverted 
and most difficult texts are more fully explained, yet with great sim- 
plicity, in notes, and also an Appendix. In the hands of well in- 
structed and judicious teachers, no one, we think, would doubt the 
utility of such a manual. In families, to be used by parents, it is 
excellent. Indeed for general use we feel free to commend it. The 
plan and execution as a whole we like, and hope a fair trial will be 
given it.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

' We are ignorant of the name of the Author of this little book, but 
we think he has done good service to the cause of religious instruc- 
tion. We are not in favor of the multiplication of manuals for the 
use of Sunday Schools, but the arrangement and plan of this work, 
are such as to make it a valuable assistant to any parent and Sunday 
School Teacher.' — Christian Register. 

The Sunday School Guide. By A. B. Muzzey, 
IBmo. 

J, M. & Co. being engaged in the publication of 
Juvenile Works, can offer to individuals and others, 
selecting for Sabbath, School, and District Libraries, 
superior advantages. And they keep constantly on 
hand the largest assortment of Juveniles to be found, 
embracing all the works by IMary Howitt, Mrs. Ellis, 
Aunt Kitty, Charlotte Elizabeth, the Abbotts, and others ; 
all of which will be sold at a LARGE DISCOUNT, 
from the trade prices. 

3000 volumes now on hand. 
2# 



18 JAMES MTJNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Honrs for Heaven : a small but choice Selection of 
Prayers, from Eminent Divines of the Church of Eng- 
land. Intended as a Devotional Companion for Young 
Persons. 32mo. gilt edges. 

* This is a little manual of devotion, consisting of prayers and 
meditations for each day in the week, with additions of prayers for 
particular occasions. 

' To the prayers are added many miscellaneous pieces in prose and 
verse, suited for aids to devotion; and, lastly, several weighty religious 
aphorisms. 

' There are here and there forms of invocation, and single expres- 
sions, from which we dissent ; but the spirit, and, with few exceptions, 
the language, is such that we do not fear to recommend the book to 
serious Christians of all denominations.' — Christian Register. 

' A choice selection of prayers from eminent Divines which is 
designed as a devotional companion. It is an elegant little volume, 
nicely printed and bound, and its contents will be very acceptable to 
any that may read them occasionally, as designed.' — Ploughman. 

Farr's Prayers. Forms of Morning and Evening 
Prayer, composed for the use of Families. By Jona- 
than Farr. 16mo. pp. 174. 

' The ' Forms of Morning and Evening Prayer' are among the best 
that have come under our notice, — at once calm and fervent, scriptu- 
ral and rational ; for which reason we doubt not that they will find 
general favor among those who are accustomed to avail themselves of 
such helps to private or domestic devotion. The volume is very 
neatly printed and done up, and contains prayers for every day in a 
fortnight, and eight morning and evening prayers for any day in the 
week, and a great variety of occasional prayers for families, and for 
individuals.' — Christian Examiner. 

SewelFs Daily Devotions, for a Family, with occa- 
sional Prayers. Second Edition. 12mo. 

Greenwood's Chapel Litnrgy; collected principally 
from the Book of Common Prayer. Fifth Edition; 
with Family Prayers and Services, and other Addi- 
tions. ByR W. P. Greenwood. 12mo. 



MANUALS 



FOR 




DEVOTION. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 19 



Brooks's Prayers. A Family Prayer Book, and Pri- 
vate Manual ; to which are added, Forms for E-eHgious 
Societies and Schools, with a Collection of Hymns. 
By Charles Brooks, Minister of the Tlihd Church in 
Hjngham, Massachusetts. 12 mo. 

* Both as to its substance and form, it is a work of an excellent 
design, and well calculated to answer its design ; and considering how 
much it is wanted among us, and how much good it may do, we are 
happy in having this opportunity to recommend it most cordially.' — 
Chnstian Disciple. 

Bowring's Matins and Vespers ; v/ith Hymns and 
Occasional Devotional Pieces. By John BowTing. 
London. 18mo. Price 50 cents. 

' There is in them a frequent display, or rather the presence without 
the display, of a tenderness and pathos, an elegant simplicity and 
devotional feeling, w^hich win upon the heart, and sometimes touch it 
as with strains from unearthly worlds. There is no dram^a, no tale, 
no controversy in these poems : they are truly • Matins and Vespers.' 
They charm by their modesty and sensibility, and by a deep venera- 
tion of, and an ardent expression of gratitude toward, our Almighty 
Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor. Many of the pictures in them of 
the love and compassion of God toward his creatures are truly beau- 
tiful and affecting.' — Christian Observer^ London. 

Furness'S Domestic Worship. By W. H. Furness, 

Pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian Chm*ch 
in Pliiladelphia. Second Edition. 12mo. 

* The prayers are divided into sections and are not specially appro* 
priated to the several days of the week; that opportunity may be 
given for selection, omission, and variety.' — The Preface. 

The Social Hymn Book; consisting of Psalms and 
Hymns for Social Worship and Private Devotion. 
Compiled by 'Rev. Chandler Pvobbins. 18mo. 

Devotional Exercises- Compiled by J. T. Bucking- 
ham. 18mo. Third Edition. 

* We like this little volume extremely. The plan is happy and it is 
executed with exceedingly good judgment and taste.' — K A. Review. 

This unpretending little volume is compiled from the Book of 
Proverbs, the Book of Psalms, and the Gospels. The compiler has 
executed his task v^^ith excellent judgment, and we most heartily 
recommend it' — Salem Observer, 



20 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

HAWAIIAN OR SANDWICH ISLANDS, 

Embracing tlieir Antiquities, Legends, Discovery by 
Europeans in the Sixteenth Century, Rediscovery by 
Cook, with their Civil, ReHgious, and Pohtical History, 
from the earhest period to the present time. By 
James Jackson Jarves, Member of the Am. Oriental 
Society. With Maps and Plates. 8vo. 

' The book is carefully prepared and furnishes a highly attractive 
narrative. The ground over which the author has passed has been 
almost entirely untrod before him, and the history will be quite new, 
we believe, to almost all readers. It is a history full of its passages 
of romance, — for these islands have not been exempted from the 
stirring excitements of larger communities.' — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

' The work bears the marks of great attention and patient research ; 
the narrative is easy, flowing, and spirited, in a style adapted to the 
subject.' — Philadelphia Christian Observer. 

' Mr. J. has produced an excellent and permanently valuable book.* 
— Boston Recorder. 

' It supplies a deficiency in our literature, and is finished in such a 
manner that it will not have to be done again. This work will be a 
favorite ; it affords information not easily found elsewhere, and if 
attainable at all^ only to be collected by great labor, and from a variety 
of sources.' — Bo.ptist Memorial and Monthly Chronicle. 

N. HAWTHORNE'S TWICE TOLD TALES. 2 
vols. 12mo. Cloth. 

' A whole volume of collected Miscellanies of great merit is before 
ns. We mean Mr. Hawthorne's ' Twice Told Tales,' which will one 
day or other be naturalized into our Library of Romance, if truth, 
fancy, pathos, and originality, have any longer power to diffuse a 
reputation. He has caught the true fantastic spirit, which somewhere 
or other exists in every society, be it ever so utilitarian and practical, 
linking the seen to the unseen, the matter of fact to the imaginative. 
As a recounter of mere legends, Mr. Haw^thorne claims high praise. 
We cannot too heartily commend this book as the best addition that 
has been made to what may be called the Fairy Library, which has 
been made for many years.' — London Foreign and Colonial Quarterly 
Review. 

'To this little work we would say, ' Live ever, sweet, sweet book.* 
It comes from the hand of a man of genius. Every thing about it has 
the freshness of morning and of May. A calm, thoughtful face seems 
to be looking at you from every page.' — N. A. Review. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY*S PUBLICATIONS. 21 



SCENES AND SCENERY 

IN THE 

SANDWICH ISLANDS, 

And a trip through Central America: being observa* 
tions from my Note-book dming the years 1837-1842, 
By James J. Jai-ves, Author of the History of the 
Sandwich Islands, &c., embellished with Map and 4 
plates. 

*Mr. Jarves has enjoyed peculiar advantages for acquiring an accu- 
rate knowledge of the past and present condition of this people, their 
manners and customs, and the natural features and resources of the 
islands ; and of these he has fully availed himself He seems to have 
written without fear or prejudice, desirous of doing ample justice to 
missionary effort, and exposing the more than savage outrage of for- 
eign residents and visiters, some of them high in official station, with 
fearlessness. 

' From the two works of Mr. J., a more accurate idea of the islands 
may be obtained, than from any other source. There is much hveli" 
ness in his narrati^^e ; and an occasional imperfection in the structure 
of a sentence, or the inexact use of a word, shows that he did not 
write in fetters. Li his ' Sketches,' particularly, he has managed so 
to intermingle the offensive and the ludicrous, the beautiful and the 
economical, as to portray well the peculiar transition state of this 
people. Whoever would find an account of the Sandwich Islands, 
both amusing and instructive, will not fail to read Mr, J.'s books.'-^ 
Christian Review, 

^ The book before us, written by Mr. James Jackson Jarves, is illus^ 
trative of the recent progress of religion, science, and refinement in 
that most interesting group — the Sandwich Islands, 

' We rarely read a book of this class from beginning to end : to the 
volume before us, however, we have paid this compliment. It con^ 
tains many provincialisms, and, strange to say, a few grammatical 
errors ; yet we like the spirit in which it is written, and the vividness 
with which the author paints novel scenes in the North Pacific,'--^ 
New World, 

SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Translated from Uhland, Korner, Burger, and other 
German Lyric Poets, with notes. By Charles T, 
Brooks. 

' ' In this volume we have presented to us a string of beautiful pearls, 
' The t}rpographical execution of the work is good, and the pub^ 
Ushers merit commendation. We think the volume well worthy a 
place among the selected poetry of the day.' — Aiuencan Eclectic, 



22 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS. 

CARLYLE'S MISCELLANIES. 4 vols. 

SARTOR RESARTUS. Fourth American Edition. 
" HEROES OF HISTORY. 1 voL 

FRENCH REVOLUTION. 2 vols. 
WILHELM MEISTER. 3 vols. 
PAST AND PRESENT. 1 vol. 
CHARTISM. 1 vol. 
" GERMAN ROMANCE: Specimens of its chief 

authors 5 v^ith Biographical and Critical Notices. By Thomas 
Carlyle. 2 vols. 12mo. 
ESSAYS BY R. W. EMERSON. 1 vol. 

Contents. Plistory; Self Reliance; Compensation; Spiritual 
Laws ; Love ; Friendship ; Prudence : Heroism ; The Over Soul ; 
Circles ; Intellect ; Art. 
NATURE. By R. W. Emerson. 

LIFE OF CRABBE THE POET. By his Son. 12mo. 

THE HAMLETS, A TALE. By Miss Martineau. 2d Ed. 18mo. 

PIERPONT'S POEMS, now first collected. 16mo. 

POLITE LITERATURE IN GERMANY. Translated by Geo. 

W. Haven. 16mo. 
COLERIDGE'S CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT. 
AIDS TO REFLECTION. By S. T. Coleridge. 8vo. 
TUCKER'S LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED, with a Memoir. 

4 vols. 8vo. 

GUIZOT'S ESSAY ON THE INFLUENCE AND CHARAC- 
TER OF WASHINGTON. 16mo. 

GREENWOOD'S SERMONS, with a Memoir. 2 vols. 12mo. 

STEWART'S ELEMENTS OF THE HUMAN MIND. Svo. 4th 
Edition. 

CHANNING'S WORKS, Edited by the Author. 6 vols. r2mo. 
SUNDAY LIBRARY FOR YOUNG PERSONS. 4 vols. 18mo. 
HOLMES'S ANNALS OF AMERICA. 2 vols. Svo. 
HISTORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. By B. Peirce. Svo. 
MARY HOWITT'S, STRIVE AND THRIVE, 

HOPE ON! HOPE EVER. 
" " SOWING AND REAPING. 

» " WHO SHALL BE GREATEST? 

" TALES IN PROSE. 

« TALES IN VERSE, 

" TALES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S CATALOGUE. 23 



STANDARD WORKS. 



Bancroft's U. S. 3 vols. 

Sparks's Life of Washington. 1 vol. 

" American Biography. 10 vols. 
Franklin's Works. 10 vols. 
Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella. 3 v, 

Mexico. 3 vols. 
Burke's Works. 9 vols. 
Stephens's Central America. 2 vols. 

" Yucatan. 2 vols. 

" Arabia Petrse. 2 vols. 

" Greece, &c. 2 vols. 
Story's Writings. 1vol. 
Shakspeare. Various Editions. 
Milton's Poetical Works. 2 vols. 

" Prose Works. 2 vols. 
Cowper's Poems. 2 vols. 
Longfellow's Poems. 3 vols. 
Encyclopedia Americana. 13 vols. 
Miss Bremer's Works. 1 vol. 
Edgeworth's " 10 vols. 
Hannah More's " 2 vols. 
Sherwood's " 8 vols. 
Butler's Works. 2 vols. 
Spenser's " 5 vols. 
Channing's " 6 vols. 
Henry Ware's Works. 
Charlotte Elizabeth's Works. 



Greenwood's Works. 
Pollen's " 5 vols. 

Heman's " 5 vols. 

Whittier, Tennyson, Leigh Hunt, Scott, 
Barry Cornwall, and Lowell's Poems. 
Burns's Works. 1 vol. 
Aiken's British Poets. 8vo. 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 
Lamb's Complete Works. 8vo. 
Herbert's Poems and Remains. 2 vols. 
Latrobe's Scripture Illustrations. 4to. 
D'Aubigne's Reformation. 3 vols. 
Neander's Church History. 
Bible in Spain. 

Milman's History of Christianity. 
Buckminster's Works. 2 vols, 12rao. 
Life of Jean Paul Richter. 2 vols. 
Peabody's Doctrinal Discourses. 12mo. 
Allison's History of Europe. 4 vols. 
8vo. 

Carlyle's Works. 14 vols. 12mo. 
Poets and Poetry of America. 
Buckminster's Works. 2 vols. 
Walter Scott's Novels, Poems, and Life, 

uniform, 89 vols. 
Paley's Works. 6 vols. 
Young's Old English Prose Writers. 9 v. 



MRS. SIGOURNEY'S 
PLEASANT WEIOKIES OF PLEASANT LANDS. M Ed. with additions. 

i6mo. Illustrated with two beautiful Engravings. Cloth. 

' It has all the charms which characterize the works of William 
Howitt, besides its poetical illustrations of some of the most romantic 
spots known over the wide earth.' — Christian Register. 

/ It contains a variety of articles, suggested by a recent visit to Great 
Britain, in poetry and prose, but all of a superior order, and all calcu- 
lated to enchain the attention of the reader,- — and while the beautiful 
description of scenes abroad tends to enlighten, the elegant language 
and the elevated sentiments must purify the heart.' 

NEAT MINIATURE YOLUMEsTlN CLOTH, GILT EDGES. 

Channing's Self- Culture : Hours for Heaven: Pure Gold; Sentiment 
of Flowers ; Hemans, Wordsworth, Campbell, and Bowring's Poetical 
Works ; Casket of Four Jewels ; Bible and the Closet ; Marriage Ring; 
Daily Manna ; Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia ; Vicar of Wakefield ; 
Goldsmith's Essays ; Gems from American Poets : Hannah More's 
Private Devotion ; Token of the Heart ; Paul and Virginia ; Flower 
Vase; Gems from Female Poets; Scott's Poetical Works, 3 vols.; 
Coleridge's Poetical Works ; Barton's Poems ; Remember Me ; Queen 
of Flowers. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, 

Publishers, Booksellers, and Stationers, 

134 WASHINGTON STREET, 
BOSTON, 

KEEP CONSTANTLY ON HAND A LARGE ASSORTMENT OF 
MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS, SUITABLE FOR CITY, 
TOWN, AND VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

0:;7*PBRSONAL ATTENTION PAID TO ALL ORDERS ENTRUSTED TO THEIR CARS. 

SCHOOL BOOKS, ALL THE VARIETIES IN USE IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Books imported to order, in large or small quantities, 
by every steamer; and answers to orders received in 
thirty to sixty days. Orders from incorporated institu- 
tions, executed free of duty. 

Particular attention paid to the furnishing of Juvenile 
Libraries, either Sabbath or Day School, and as low as 
can be procured any where in the city. 

Merchants, School Committees, and Teachers, supplied 
with Books and Stationery at a large discount from Trade 
Prices. 

J. M. & Co. are also publishers of 

THE 

AMERICAN ALMANAC, 
AND 

HEPOSITORY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 

Edited by Francis Bowen. 14 volumes now ready. Back 
volumes supplied. 

George Coolidge^ Printer ^ 57 Washington Street, Boston, 



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